girl's name
Lyna
LEE-na
- Origin French
- Gender Girl
- Letters 4
- Popularity Rare
- Births on record 19,713
France
#56
2025 births
Lyna is a girl's name, a French respelling of Lina, which has both an Arabic sense of a young palm tree and a European use as a short form. It ranks fifty-sixth in France and is almost unused elsewhere.
- Lyna is a name of French origin.
- Peaked in France in 2019, when 1,015 babies were given the name.
- It has been rising over the past decade in France.
- Today about 1 in 756 babies in France is given this name.
- First appears in birth records in 1953.
Lyna over time
Births per decade in France, 1950s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1950s | 15 |
| 1960s | 5 |
| 1970s | 5 |
| 1980s | 30 |
| 1990s | 265 |
| 2000s | 3,640 |
| 2010s | 8,535 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 5,335 |
What Lyna means
Lyna means a young palm tree in the Arabic reading, with a sense of tenderness and pliancy. Read as a European short form it takes its meaning from Carolina, Angelina or Adelina, and has none of its own.
Where Lyna comes from
Lyna respells Lina, and inherits its two origins. The Arabic lina denotes a young palm tree and carries connotations of softness; separately, European languages clipped the ending from Carolina, Angelina and Adelina to produce Lina in the same way they produced Nina and Tina. The y is doing purely visual work, as it does in Lyana and Lyam, and marks the spelling as a modern French coinage rather than changing the sound. Because the parent name already has two live origins, Lyna has three claimants and no settled derivation, which is why reference works give it variously as Arabic, Latin and Greek.
Lyna in use
Lyna ranks fifty-sixth in France with about 780 births in 2025. It is one of the least exported names in this part of the French list: beyond 5,500 in England and Wales and beyond 8,100 in the United States, while the plain Lina is common in both. Our records carry it from 1911 with a peak in 2004, though the modern spelling accounts for almost all of its use.
How popular is Lyna?
In 2025, Lyna was given to 780 babies in France, ranking #56 that year. It is a rare choice.
Where Lyna is used
French counts are rounded to the nearest five and nothing below five is published, so these figures show the shape of the name's use rather than an exact tally. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Lyna
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Lyna also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Lyna over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Lyna in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Lyna
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Lyna — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Lyna
What does the name Lyna mean?
In the Arabic reading, a young palm tree. As a European short form it takes its meaning from Carolina or Angelina.
Is Lyna the same as Lina?
It is a French respelling of it. The y changes the look rather than the sound.
Why do sources disagree about Lyna?
The parent name Lina already has two live origins, and the respelling adds a third claimant.
How popular is Lyna?
Fifty-sixth in France, but beyond 5,500 in England and Wales.
Is Lyna a girl's or a boy's name?
Lyna is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
Is Lyna a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Lyna currently ranks #56 in France. It has been rising over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.