How popular is the baby name Linda in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Linda.

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Popularity of the baby name Linda


Posts that mention the name Linda

Babies born during Hurricane Gloria, named Gloria

hurricane

Two baby girls born in Virginia while Hurricane Gloria was passing through (on September 27, 1985) were named after the storm.

One of the babies belonged to Linda Cowell of Newport News. “Everyone in the shelter was saying if you go into labor, you’ve got to name her Gloria,” she said. And so she did.

The other belonged to Gloria Davis of Virginia Beach. During her pregnancy, her husband hadn’t been too keen on passing Gloria’s name down to a daughter. But when their baby girl happened to be born during a storm with the very same name, he relented.

Sources:

  • “Gloria Leaves Two Little Namesakes.” Miami Herald 29 Sept. 1985: 6A.
  • “Gloria’s Lighter Side.” Evening Independent [St. Petersburg] 28 Sept. 1985: 3-A.

Image: Adapted from Hurricane Elena by NASA (public domain)

Baby name story: Linda Ann

airplane

The 1940s baby named Linda from the other day reminded me of another 1940s baby named Linda:

On July 31, 1944, a baby named Linda Ann was born to parents Manuel and Ida Bonito of San Jose. “The baby was named after the airplane on which an uncle, Frank Bonito, a member of the Army Air Forces, is serving.”

Baby Linda’s 20-year-old identical twin brothers, Lester and Lawrence, were also in the service at the time she was born.

Source: “Baby Sister Greeted by Twin Soldiers.” San Jose Evening News 9 Aug. 1944: 1.

Image: Adapted from Air Canada Boeing 777-333ER by MarcusObal under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Baby name story: Linda

During WWII, aircraft workers and their families poured into San Diego to build planes at the Consolidated Aircraft plant. From 1941 to 1942, the population of San Diego jumped from about 203,000 to over 300,000.

Concerned about workers’ poor living conditions (and how these conditions might affect productivity), the Federal government began the Linda Vista housing project in March of 1941. Linda Vista is Spanish for “pretty view.”

The first baby born to residents of the Linda Vista community arrived in late June, 1941.

Her name? Linda, after Linda Vista.

She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. D. E. Chapman and had two older siblings, Patricia and Gerald.

Sources:

Where did the baby name Ikea come from in 1985?

IKEA store in Portland, Oregon
IKEA store

In May of 2002, Linda Dagless of the UK welcomed her fourth baby girl. Inspired by an advertisement for the furniture company Ikea, she decided to name the baby Ikea.

The name was so unusual that it made headlines:

At the time, she told her local paper in Norwich: “I was pregnant, sitting on the sofa with my boyfriend and trying to think of a name for the little girl I was going to have when I noticed the Ikea advert.

“I saw the name Ikea and thought it would make a nice name for my baby.

“I have seen the Ikea adverts on the telly and in magazines and thought they always had nice furniture, but I’ve never been to the shop. I’m now planning to go there with my mum.

The name Ikea has been just as unusual in the U.S., at least over the last decade:

  • 2013: unlisted
  • 2012: 5 baby girls named Ikea
  • […]
  • 2007: 5 baby girls named Ikea
  • 2006: 8 baby girls named Ikea
  • 2005: 8 baby girls named Ikea
  • 2004: 7 baby girls named Ikea
  • 2003: 6 baby girls named Ikea
  • 2002: 6 baby girls named Ikea
  • 2001: unlisted
  • 2000: 6 baby girls named Ikea

If you go back a bit further, though, this is what you’ll see:

  • 1999: 14 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1998: 18 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1997: 20 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1996: 23 babies named Ikea
  • 1995: 29 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1994: 33 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1993: 31 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1992: 43 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1991: 45 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1990: 65 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1989: 72 baby girls and 9 baby boys named Ikea
  • 1988: 27 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1987: 44 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1986: 30 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1985: 35 baby girls named Ikea [debut]
  • 1984: unlisted

Nearly 600 babies in the U.S. have been named Ikea (and dozens more named Ikeia and other spelling variants) since the name first popped up on the SSA’s baby name list in 1985. This is the year the Swedish company — whose name is an acronym for Ingvar Kamprad (the founder), Elmtaryd (his childhood homestead), Agunnaryd (his hometown) — opened its first store in the U.S.

Even more interesting is the spread of the baby name Ikea across America, following Ikea store openings:

1985
First Ikea opens near Philadelphia, PA.
35 baby girls named Ikea: 25 in PA, 7 in NJ.

1986
Second Ikea opens near Washington, D.C. (in Virginia).
30 baby girls named Ikea: 10 in D.C., 9 in PA, 6 in VA.

1987
No new Ikea stores.
44 baby girls named Ikea: 12 in D.C., 9 in PA, 7 in NJ, 5 in MD.

1988
Third Ikea opens near Baltimore, MD.
27 baby girls named Ikea: 8 in MD, 6 in PA.

1989
Fourth Ikea opens near Pittsburgh, PA.
72 baby girls named Ikea: 19 in MD, 7 in NC, 6 in PA, 6 in MI.
9 baby boys named Ikea: 7 in D.C.

1990
Fifth and sixth Ikeas open near Los Angeles and new New York City (in New Jersey).
65 baby girls named Ikea: 14 in MD, 7 in LA, 7 in PA, 5 in NJ. (Ikea appears on the state lists for both California and New York during the ’90s.)

Usage of the baby name Ikea tapered off after 1990, perhaps because most Americans were aware that “Ikea” was the name of a furniture store by that point.

Have you ever met a person named Ikea?

Sources: A child called Ikea: Myth or reality?, The Store That Runs on a Wrench, How Ikea Became America’s Furniture-Selling Powerhous

Image: Adapted from IKEA – Portland, Oregon by Kingofthedead under CC0 1.0.