Lynn

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Celina in BR Brazil, AR Argentina, MX Mexico and 4 more, Celine in FR France, NO Norway, BE Belgium and 2 more, Lan in VN Vietnam, MY Malaysia and Lyn in PH Philippines.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Lynn is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Arabic given name60K records spelled Lynn21 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Egypt, Israel, Palestine

  Languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic

  Also written לין, ליין, Lin, Lynne, Lyn

• English surname43K records spelled Lynn103 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in China, United States, Australia, Malaysia

  Languages: English, Polish, German

  Also written Lin, Лин, Lynne, 린, Rin

• Greek given name24K records spelled Lynn9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Greece, United States, United Kingdom, China

  Also written Lynne, Lyn, Lin, Linn, Λιν

• Hungarian given name14K records spelled Lynn4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Hungary, United States, Finland, United Kingdom

  Languages: Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Lÿnn

• a separate given name8.2K records spelled Lynn2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Italy

  Also written Lyññ

71 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Lynn 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 English, Modern name; derived from Lynn, possibly 'waterfall', 'dale', or 'valley dweller'.

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• 1 . Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Fhloinn and 6 Fhloinn (see Flynn). 2. Scottish: variant of Lyne 3. 3. English: habitational name from any of several places so called in Norfolk, in particular King’s Lynn, an important center of the medieval wool trade. The place name is probably from an Old Welsh word cognate with Gaelic linn ‘pool’, ‘stream’.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• Of uncertain origin: possibly an altered short form of Linda, or a derivative of the French name Line, which originated as a short form of various girls’ names ending in this syllable, for example

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In English, A local name for King's Lynn, Norfolk, England.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In English, from King’s Lynn, Norfolk; first attested Ædricus de Lenna 1177 P (Nf)

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

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.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Jeff Goldblumb. 1952USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor and musician
• Ginger Lynnb. 1962USAmerican pornographic actress
• Teri Hatcherb. 1964USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress
• Debra Messingb. 1968USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress (born 1968)
• Jennifer Lopezb. 1969USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer and actress (born 1969)
• Jennifer Connellyb. 1970USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress (born 1970)
• Michelle Monaghanb. 1976USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress
• Lynn Collinsb. 1977USAmerican actress
• Amy Leeb. 1981USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer-songwriter and musician (born 1981)
• Jamie Lynn Spearsb. 1991USAmerican actress and singer (born 1991)

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●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 867 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Lynn?

We estimate roughly 493 thousand people bear Lynn (counting its spellings and scripts) across 8 countries in our records.

In which country does Lynn have the most bearers?

Lynn is most frequently recorded in the United Kingdom, where it is most often spelled lynn.

How common is Lynn compared with other names?

In the United Kingdom, Lynn is the 52nd most common given name of 369,273 given names recorded there.

Is Lynn a male or female name?

Lynn 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 does the name Lynn mean?

Recorded meaning: (i) ‘person from King’s Lynn’, Norfolk, from a place-name meaning ‘district by the pool’; (ii) from Irish Gaelic Mac Fhloinn or O Fhloinn; (iii) Scottish variant of Lyne; (iv) anglicized from the Jewi…