Lindsay

Where Lindsay comes from

From Lindsey in Lincolnshire, from Old English Lindesēġe, Lindesīġe (“Isle of Lind”), the Old English name of the city of Lincoln, Lincolnshire, in which "Lind" comes from the Common Brittonic form of the name of Lincoln and "isle" refers to Lincoln being surrounded by fenland; from Proto-Brythonic *llɨnn (“pool”), from Proto-Celtic *lindos (“lake, liquid”), in reference to the Brayford + Old English ēġ (“island”); cf. modern Welsh llyn and Dublin.
— Wiktionary's entry for Lindsay
  • From a surname
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Lindsay through the years
  1. 1916
    First appearance
    #3,919 among girls with 6 babies, the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1966
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name. From this year on, more girls have.
  3. 1976
    Around this time: Lindsay Wagner in The Bionic Woman
    TV, 1976 · Source
  4. 1976
    Lindsay Davenport born
    American tennis player
  5. 1983
    Peak, #36
    8,622 babies named Lindsay, the most in any year.
  6. 1986
    Lindsay Lohan born
    American actress and singer
In the dictionary
  • A unisex given name transferred from the surname.
  • A male given name transferred from the surname.
  • A female given name transferred from the surname, of 1940s and later usage.
Namesakes
  • Lindsay Lohan · American actress and singer, born 1986
  • Lindsay Davenport · American tennis player, born 1976
  • Lindsay Wagner · American actress, born 1949
  • Lindsay Anderson · British feature-film, theatre and documentary director and film critic, 1923–1994
  • Lindsay Hoyle · Speaker of the House of Commons, born 1957

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record. Events show what happened around then, not why parents chose the name.