Mindy
A feminine name of English origin that may stem from a pet form of Melinda or Miranda, potentially meaning "strong" or "sweet".
Name Census estimates that about 38,118 living Americans carry the first name Mindy. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Mindy today is around 47 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mindy births was 1979 (3,722 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mindy. 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 Mindy with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Mindy is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 67 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1970s, recent registration numbers for Mindy have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
38K
~ 1 in 8,992 Americans
Peak year
1979
3,722 babies that year
Average age
47
years old
1986 SSA rank
#1,984
Tracked since 1940
Census
Mindy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 39,640 people with the first name Mindy, which placed it at #1,056 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
#1,056
National first-name rank
People counted
40K
39,640 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
13.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mindy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mindy is White at 83.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (6.7%) and Hispanic (5.2%). 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 Mindy 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 Mindy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.5% · 33,106
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.7% · 2,648
- Hispanic or Latino5.2% · 2,071
- Two or more races2.7% · 1,055
- Black or African American1.2% · 476
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 284
Gender
Gender distribution for Mindy
Out of the 42,607 babies given the name Mindy since 1880, 99.8% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Mindy as a male name
- Ranked #4,721 in 1986
- 9 male births in 1986
- Peak: 1978 (10 births)
Mindy as a female name
- Ranked #1,984 in 2024
- 99 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1979 (3,712 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mindy appears almost entirely female. Of the 39,640 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Mindy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mindy from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 14,061 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mindy 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 Mindy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mindys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Mindy, while Alaska, Rhode Island, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 780 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mindy
The name Mindy is a modern diminutive form of the name Melinda, which is derived from the German name Melinda or the Spanish name Melinda. Melinda itself is a combination of the Germanic elements "mel" meaning "dark" and "lind" meaning "soft, tender, or snake." The name Melinda can be traced back to the medieval period, when it was first recorded in various European regions.
The earliest known use of the name Mindy as a standalone name dates back to the early 20th century. It gained popularity in the United States and other English-speaking countries as a shortened version of Melinda. The name Mindy became particularly fashionable in the 1960s and 1970s, with its peak popularity occurring in the mid-1970s.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Mindy was Mindy Jacobsen, an American actress born in 1922. She had a successful career on stage, television, and film, appearing in productions such as "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "The Miracle Worker."
Another notable Mindy from history was Mindy Jostyn, an American radio actress born in 1918. She was known for her work on various radio programs, including "The Shadow" and "The Philip Morris Playhouse."
In the field of literature, Mindy Kaling, born in 1979, is a prominent figure. She is an American actress, comedian, and writer who gained fame for her roles in the TV series "The Office" and for creating and starring in "The Mindy Project."
In the realm of sports, Mindy Tinkle, born in 1983, is a former American basketball player who played professionally in the WNBA for teams like the Detroit Shock and the Phoenix Mercury.
Mindy McCready, born in 1975 and died in 2013, was an American country music singer who had several hit singles on the Billboard country charts, including "Guys Do It All the Time" and "A Girl's Gotta Do (What a Girl's Gotta Do)."
While these are just a few examples, the name Mindy has been borne by individuals from various walks of life throughout history, each leaving their unique mark on their respective fields and communities.
People
Mindy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mindy as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Mindy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mindy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 38,118 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mindy 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 8,992 US residents.
Is Mindy a common name?
We classify Mindy as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 42,607 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mindy most popular?
The single biggest year for Mindy was 1979, when 3,722 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mindy is about 47 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mindy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 39,640 people with the name Mindy, or 13.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,056 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 Mindy 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 Mindy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mindy appears almost entirely female. Of the 39,640 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Mindy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mindy is White at 83.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (6.7%) and Hispanic (5.2%). 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 Mindy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mindy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.5% (33,106 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 Mindy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mindy a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Mindy 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 Mindy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mindy 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 Mindy 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 Mindy?
You can see how many Americans are named Mindy on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.