Linda
given name · Latin script
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Linda is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country, where it is the 23rd most common given name. Recorded meaning: Germanic/Spanish name associated with 'soft, pretty'; also linked to linde 'lime tree/shield'.
- IEIreland≈1 in 167(inferred from the name graph)
- SESweden1 in 193
- NZNew Zealand≈1 in 197
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- #60 (measured from records)
- 8 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 645 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 167 (inferred from the name graph)
1,164,876 people, 2020
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Ireland, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Germanic/Spanish name associated with 'soft, pretty'; also linked to linde 'lime tree/shield'.
Sources 1
- Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
Attested across 12 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Linda counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #23 | 1,164,876 | 1 in 286 | 1.2M | Linda | 645 |
| GB United Kingdom | #27 | ≈320,000 est. | ≈1 in 202 | 11 | Linda | 351 |
| IT Italy | #63 | ≈190,000 est. | ≈1 in 334 | 2 | Linda | 177 |
| CA Canada | #15 | ≈180,000 est. | ≈1 in 212 | 10 | Linda | 339 |
| EG Egypt | #270 | ≈170,000 est. | ≈1 in 612 | — | Linda | 65 |
| SE Sweden | #25 | 52,786 | 1 in 193 | 53K | Linda | 154 |
| IE Ireland | #16 | ≈31,000 est. | ≈1 in 167 | — | Linda | 150 |
| NZ New Zealand | #18 | ≈25,000 est. | ≈1 in 197 | 13 | Linda | 162 |
1,164,876 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register); Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Linda is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In German, from Czech 'white poplar' or from place names such as Lindau/Lindow
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
In English, Derived from German Lind, meaning ‘serpent’ or ‘snake’.
as a nameIrish first names
In Xhosa, Xhosa: "wait"; also Swahili "to guard," plus Spanish/Teutonic names with other meanings.
as a nameAfrican Names
Of relatively recent origin and uncertain etymology. It is first recorded in the r9th century. It may be a shortened form of I51 Belinda, an adoption of Spanish linda ‘pretty’, or a Latinate derivative of any various other Germanic female names ending in -lind meaning ‘weak’, ‘tender’, ‘soft’. It has become very popular in the 2oth century. Pet forms: Lindie, Lindy.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
habitational name from places so named in Thuringia, Saxony, and Silesia.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Linda McCartneyb. 1941USAmerican photographer, musician and animal rights activist (1941–1998)
- Linda B. Buckb. 1947USAmerican biologist
- Linda McMahonb. 1948USUnited States Secretary of Education since 2025
- Linda Lovelaceb. 1949USAmerican pornographic actress (1949-2002)
- Linda M. Godwinb. 1952USAmerican astronaut
- Linda Woolvertonb. 1952USAmerican screenwriter (born 1952)
- Linda Thomas-Greenfieldb. 1952USAmerican diplomat (born 1952)
- Linda Hamiltonb. 1956USAmerican actress
- Linda Fiorentinob. 1958USAmerican former actress
- Linda Evangelistab. 1965CACanadian model (born 1965)
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 152 sources across 76 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 1.2M | #20 |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 53K | #69 |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2020 | 38K | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 852 | #20 |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 2024 | 31 | — |
| CA Canada | Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender | 2024 | 10 | #431 |
Reference works 11
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Lietuvių kalbos institutas — Lietuvių pavardžių žodynas (Lithuanian surname dictionary)
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Hoffman, Polish Surnames: Origins and Meanings (2nd ed., 2012)
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Linda mean, and where does it come from?
- Germanic/Spanish name associated with 'soft, pretty'; also linked to linde 'lime tree/shield'. Recorded by Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education).
- In which country does Linda have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 1.2 million people named Linda, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled linda.
- Is Linda a male or female name?
- Linda is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What are other forms of the name Linda?
- In the etymology graph, Lynda, Lyn and Lindy are forms of the same name in other languages; Linnie is a recorded short or pet form.
- How common is the name Linda?
- In the United States, the national register counted 1,164,876 people named Linda in 2020, about 1 in 286 residents.
- How common is Linda compared with other names?
- In the United States, Linda is the 23rd most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Linda?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/lindaThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), and bulk access is licensed separately.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Linda” — the 23rd most common given name in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.