Names/L

Lincoln

boys’ nameComebackCompare

Lincoln is ranked 73rd among boys in 2024 (4,567 births). Its best rank was 40th, in 2020.

Rank in 2024
#73down 9 from 2023
Births in 2024
4,5670.27% of boys
Peak year
20178,201 births
Best rank
#40in 2020
Since 1880
102,155people given the name
Babies named Lincoln, by year of birthboys
02.5k5k7.5k10k18801900192019401960198020002020

The story in the numbers

100,181 boys have been named Lincoln in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 2017, with 8,201 births — 0.44% of all boys recorded that year.

This is a comeback. After an early peak the name fell to a fraction of its former share, and it has been climbing again for the past decade.

Half of everyone given the name was born by 2017, and the 2010s alone account for 52%. It has spent 144 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 12 of them in the top 100.

It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 1,974 girls have also been given it, 1.9% of the total.

Rank among boys, year by year

Higher on the chart = more popularrank (gaps = outside the top 1,000)
#1#250#500#750#100018801900192019401960198020002020

By decade

Decadeboys named Lincoln
1880s94
1890s141
1900s176
1910s905
1920s1,302
1930s852
1940s845
1950s818
1960s1,260
1970s1,318
1980s1,157
1990s1,693
2000s8,803
2010s52,010
2020s28,807

In 2017, its biggest year

Lincoln was the 41st most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 2017 were Liam, Noah, William, James and Logan. See all of 2017.

Names that rose and fell with Lincoln

Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.

What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.