Humanverse

Lynley vs Lynne

American parents have registered 62,415 Lynnes since 1880, against 991 Lynleys. But in 2025 it was Lynley that was commoner, 22 babies to 6.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Lynley against Lynne, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Lynley Lynne

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 119 years in which either name was published, Lynne for 99 years and Lynley for 20 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Lynley Lynne
Total US births 99162,415
Most in one year 462,471
Babies in 2025 226
Estimated living today 97047,000
Median age today 1567
Peak year 20161960
Best rank 3,411th girls164th girls
Rank in 2025 5,554th13,208th
First recorded 19621907
Girls / boys 991 / 061,957 / 458

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Lynnes alive today are over 67; half the Lynleys are over 15. That is 52 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Lynley Lynne
New Zealand 2281,025

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Lynley and Lynne.