Linda

The name developed as an independent form of Germanic names such as Belinda and Rosalind, derived from the root for the linden tree. It entered American birth registrations in the late nineteenth century as a modest regional choice. A surge in popular music during the 1940s turned it into a national landslide, briefly dethroning the country's longtime favorites.

The name immediately situates a bearer in a neighborhood built around 1950. A Linda tends to be pictured organizing a volunteer schedule or consulting a spiral-bound address book. With about three-quarters of living bearers belonging to the Baby Boom cohort, the name rarely surfaces on a kindergarten cubby. It ends on the unmistakable cadence of someone who still writes checks with a ballpoint pen.