Lyndon
Meaning "from the linden tree" or "linden valley."
Name Census estimates that about 8,148 living Americans carry the first name Lyndon. It is a predominantly male name (96.0% of registrations). The average person named Lyndon today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lyndon births was 1964 (519 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lyndon. 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 Lyndon with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Lyndon is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 399 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
8.1K
~ 1 in 42,066 Americans
Peak year
1964
519 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,754
Tracked since 1904
Census
Lyndon in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,983 people with the first name Lyndon, which placed it at #2,878 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
#2,878
National first-name rank
People counted
8.0K
7,983 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
56.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lyndon
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lyndon is White at 56.8%. The next largest groups are Black (25.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.4%). 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 Lyndon 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 Lyndon at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White56.8% · 4,531
- Black or African American25.1% · 2,004
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.4% · 668
- Two or more races4.4% · 350
- Hispanic or Latino3.9% · 309
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 121
Gender
Gender distribution for Lyndon
Lyndon leans heavily male at 96.0% of total registrations, but 399 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Lyndon as a male name
- Ranked #1,754 in 2024
- 94 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1964 (514 births)
Lyndon as a female name
- Ranked #9,287 in 2024
- 11 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (35 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lyndon leans strongly male. 7,568 people counted with this name were male (94.8%), compared with 414 female bearers (5.2%).
Popularity
Lyndon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lyndon from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 2,039 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lyndon 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 Lyndon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lyndons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 37 states and territories. Texas, California, New York recorded the most babies named Lyndon, while South Dakota, Colorado, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 129 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lyndon
The name Lyndon has its origins in the Old English language. It is derived from the words "lind," meaning lime or linden tree, and "dun," meaning hill or down. Therefore, the name can be interpreted as "lime tree hill" or "linden tree hill."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name dates back to the Domesday Book, a detailed survey of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of William the Conqueror. In this document, the name appears as "Lindune" and "Lindon," referring to various places and settlements.
During the Middle Ages, the name Lyndon was primarily used as a surname or a place name, rather than a personal name. However, some historical figures bore this name, including Lyndon de Hechefeld, a 13th-century landowner in Herefordshire, England.
In the 16th century, the name gained popularity as a given name, particularly among the gentry and upper classes in England. One notable bearer of the name was Sir Lyndon Ferrers (1550-1624), a member of Parliament and High Sheriff of Warwickshire.
As the British Empire expanded, the name Lyndon spread to other parts of the world. In the United States, one of the earliest recorded individuals with this name was Lyndon Seager, born in Massachusetts in 1635.
The most famous person bearing the name Lyndon is undoubtedly Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973), the 36th President of the United States. He served from 1963 to 1969 and is known for his domestic policies such as the "Great Society" programs and his involvement in the Vietnam War.
Other notable individuals with the name Lyndon include:
1. Lyndon Dykes (born 1995), a Scottish professional footballer.
2. Lyndon Byers (born 1981), a Canadian former professional ice hockey player.
3. Lyndon Brock (born 1966), a Canadian former professional ice hockey player.
4. Lyndon La Touche (1828-1896), an Irish first-class cricketer.
While the name Lyndon has its roots in Old English, it has been used across various cultures and regions over the centuries. Its association with historical figures and notable individuals has contributed to its enduring legacy as a given name.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Lyndon
People
Lyndon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lyndon 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
Lyndon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lyndon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,148 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lyndon 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 42,066 US residents.
Is Lyndon a common name?
We classify Lyndon as "Rare". It ranks above 97.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10,039 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lyndon most popular?
The single biggest year for Lyndon was 1964, when 519 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lyndon is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lyndon in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,983 people with the name Lyndon, or 2.64 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,878 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 Lyndon 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 Lyndon?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lyndon leans strongly male. 7,568 people counted with this name were male (94.8%), compared with 414 female bearers (5.2%). 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 Lyndon?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lyndon is White at 56.8%. The next largest groups are Black (25.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.4%). 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 Lyndon most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lyndon in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.8% (4,531 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 Lyndon in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lyndon a male name?
Yes, 96.0% of people registered as Lyndon in the SSA data are male. 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 Lyndon still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lyndon 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 Lyndon 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 share the name Lyndon?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.