Lynn
A traditionally feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly meaning "lake" or "pretty".
Name Census estimates that about 160,047 living Americans carry the first name Lynn. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 77.7% of registrations being female. The average person named Lynn today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lynn births was 1956 (8,989 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lynn. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Lynn with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Lynn started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Lynn have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
160K
~ 1 in 2,142 Americans
Peak year
1956
8,989 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,804
Tracked since 1880
Census
Lynn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 193,290 people with the first name Lynn, which placed it at #288 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#288
National first-name rank
People counted
193K
193,290 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
64.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lynn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lynn is White at 88.5%. The next largest groups are Black (4.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Lynn described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Lynn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.5% · 171,005
- Black or African American4.0% · 7,777
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.7% · 7,179
- Two or more races1.7% · 3,279
- Hispanic or Latino1.7% · 3,233
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 817
Gender
Gender distribution for Lynn
Lynn is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 234,691 total registrations, 52,375 (22.3%) were male and 182,316 (77.7%) were female.
Lynn as a male name
- Ranked #6,047 in 2024
- 15 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (1,781 births)
Lynn as a female name
- Ranked #2,804 in 2024
- 60 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1956 (7,736 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lynn leans strongly female. 164,406 people counted with this name were female (85.1%), compared with 28,890 male bearers (14.9%).
Popularity
Lynn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lynn from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 79,821 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lynn by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Lynn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lynns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Lynn, while Alaska, Nevada, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 4,428 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lynn
The name Lynn has its origins in the Celtic language, specifically the Welsh word "llyn" which means "lake" or "pond." It is believed to have originated in the early Middle Ages, around the 5th to 10th centuries AD, in the region now known as Wales and parts of western England.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Lynn can be found in the Domesday Book, a survey of land ownership commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears as "Linn" in reference to various locations, likely named after bodies of water.
The name Lynn gained popularity during the Middle Ages, particularly in England and other parts of the British Isles. It was commonly used as a place name, as well as a surname derived from those place names. Over time, it began to be used as a given name for both males and females.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Lynn was Lynn Wyche (c. 1510 - c. 1580), an English composer and organist who served under King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I. Another early example was Lynn Regis (fl. 1200s), a medieval Bishop of Norwich in England.
In the 16th century, Lynn Bradshaw (c. 1545 - 1619) was a prominent English merchant and politician who served as Lord Mayor of London in 1598. During the same period, Lynn Thorton (c. 1570 - 1629) was an English poet and playwright known for her religious works.
In the 18th century, Lynn Townsend (1735 - 1795) was a British soldier and explorer who is credited with being one of the first Europeans to explore the interior of Australia.
As the name Lynn became more popular, it began to be used more frequently as a feminine given name, particularly in English-speaking countries. However, it has also been used as a masculine name in some cultures and time periods.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Lynn
People
Lynn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lynn as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Lynn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lynn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 160,047 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lynn going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 2,142 US residents.
Is Lynn a common name?
We classify Lynn as "Common". It ranks above 99.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 234,691 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lynn most popular?
The single biggest year for Lynn was 1956, when 8,989 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lynn is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lynn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 193,290 people with the name Lynn, or 64.00 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #288 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Lynn in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Lynn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lynn leans strongly female. 164,406 people counted with this name were female (85.1%), compared with 28,890 male bearers (14.9%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Lynn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lynn is White at 88.5%. The next largest groups are Black (4.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Lynn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lynn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.5% (171,005 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Lynn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lynn a female name?
Yes, 77.7% of people registered as Lynn in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Lynn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lynn in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Lynn can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Lynn?
You can see how many people have the name Lynn on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.