English2 syllables#69 in the U.S.
Meaning: settlement by the pool.
Lincoln
| Origin | English place name — the city of Lincoln, recorded by the Romans as Lindum Colonia |
|---|---|
| Meaning | Settlement by the pool, from Brythonic lindo- (pool, lake; compare Welsh llyn) + Latin colonia (colony, settlement) |
| Pronunciation | LINK-un — the second l is silent |
| Popularity | #69 in the U.S. |
| Variants | Few. Linkin is a modern respelling; Lincolne survives as an archaic surname form |
| Nicknames | Linc, Link |
| Namesake | Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the United States |
History & meaning
Lincoln began as an address. There was a British settlement on a hill above a wide pool in the River Witham, and the Brythonic word for that pool, lindo-, named the place; the same root gives modern Welsh llyn, a lake. When Rome settled retired legionaries there in the first century it planted a colonia on the site, and the two halves fused into Lindum Colonia. Anglo-Saxon speakers wore that down to Lincylene and then to Lincoln. The pool is still there, in the middle of the city, called the Brayford.
From place came surname: families who left Lincoln were identified by where they came from. One such line produced Samuel Lincoln, who sailed to Hingham, Massachusetts in 1637 and whose descendants included a president. After 1865 the surname turned into a given name in the same American way that Washington and Jefferson already had, carried especially by families for whom emancipation was personal history. It then went quiet for the better part of a century. Its current run is recent and steep: Lincoln sits at #69 in the U.S. top 100, higher than at any point in its history as a first name.
Why parents choose it
Very few names let you honour a person without honouring a saint, a grandparent or a celebrity, and Lincoln is the cleanest of them. It carries a specific idea — stubborn decency, a war ended — without requiring the child to be religious or the family to be from anywhere in particular. That it also shortens to Linc, which sounds like a name out of a cooler decade, is not incidental to its appeal.
Middle names for Lincoln
Lincoln is two solid syllables with a flat ending, so short middles snap it shut nicely: Lincoln Grant, Lincoln Reid, Lincoln Blake, Lincoln Hayes. Longer middles tend to make the whole thing sound like a law firm. The middle names guide explains why.
Famous Lincolns
Lincoln Steffens was the muckraking journalist behind The Shame of the Cities. Lincoln Ellsworth made the first flight across Antarctica in 1935. Lincoln Chafee served Rhode Island as both senator and governor, and Lincoln Riley has coached college football at Oklahoma and USC. The president, of course, wore it as a surname.
Consider instead
Jackson is the other presidential surname in heavy use, and ranks higher. Hudson trades the statesman for a river and an American map. Everett gives you the same three-beat New England solidity without the history lesson.