Belinda

62,433 people in America carry this name — ranked #788 of 923.

A name with a settled sense and a settled sound.

Say it buh LIHN duh

3 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

B AH0 L IH1 N D AH0 — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 62,433 2020 Census
  • Per 100,000 20.7 about 1 in 5,309 people
  • As a surname 119 ranked #142,788 the other way round

What Belinda means and where it comes from

Greek in origin, reading literally as “serpent”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

How often Belinda has been given

72,486 babies were given this name since 1889. The busiest year was 1961, with 3,121 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50 60s 70 80 90 00 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 1960s. It has been given less often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

Middle names that fit Belinda

Three syllables already, so a short middle name keeps the whole from running long.

Better avoided

  • Belinda Ashley — runs together
  • Belinda Amy — runs together
  • Belinda Brenda — same opening

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

Is Belinda a boy's or a girl's name?

0.1% men
62,361 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

The states where Belinda is most common

In Alabama the name is given 2.3 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Alabama ×2.3
  • Mississippi ×2.3
  • Texas ×2.0
  • West Virginia ×2.0
  • Louisiana ×1.9

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

The likeliest full names

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Who has this name today

  • White alone (non-Hispanic) — 50.1%
  • Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 20.0%
  • Hispanic or Latino origin — 22.6%
  • Two or more races — 2.8%
  • Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 3.7%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native alone — 0.8%

Categories are how people answered the census — a fact about the bearers, not a property of the name. Conclusions are ours, not the Census Bureau’s.

Same syllables and stress as Belinda

Ends on the same sound

Same rhythm — 3 syllables, stress on the second

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

Try it Full-Name Estimator

Add a surname and see how many Americans carry the two together.

Open Full-Name Estimator on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Greek origin