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Lien

Girls' name

Short form of Carolien

Lien has been given to 525 babies in the U.S. since 1975. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1982, with 34 recorded.

Babies named Lien, 2022

1 in 677,000

Lien over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
01020304018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Lien: meaning, origin, and history

Short form of Carolien

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Lien means

Lien is a short form of Carolien.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Lien is used in Dutch.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈlin/ for Lien.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Carolien.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 519 girls were recorded with the name Lien between 1975 and 2022. Its highest annual count was 34 in 1982; its best national rank was #2,737 in 1982.

In the United States, 6 boys were recorded with the name Lien between 2013 and 2013. Its highest annual count was 6 in 2013; its best national rank was #11,589 in 2013.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Lien?

Lien had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2022, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2022
1 in 677,000
5 of 3,385,755 births
Among girls only
1 in 328,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2022
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
469,366 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Lien sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2022 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 469,366 children born in 2022 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Lien. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Liens were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Lien was born before 1988 — so the typical Lien is around 37 today.

Median birth year
1988
About 37 years old
Biggest decade
1980s
46.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
19.8%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
519
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1980s — 46.6% of all recorded uses (242).

Is Lien rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1982 (34)
Years since peak
43
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
32.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,737
1982

Spellings of Lien

Lien is not the most common spelling — Lisa is, with 42.1% against Lien's 0.02%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Lien is used

Across 1910–2025, Lien was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 268,944 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 100,000
  2. 2Louisiana1 in —
  3. 3Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Lien has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Lien around the world

Where Lien ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • France
    1957–1957
    #1,584
    in 1957
  • South Australia
    1973–2011
    #840
    in 2011

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Lien by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#2,737
1982
Peak year
1982
34 that year
First recorded
1975
Last recorded
2022
All-time count
519
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#11,589
2013
Peak year
2013
6 that year
First recorded
2013
Last recorded
2013
All-time count
6
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Lien

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

LielLielleLieslLiesaLieselLielaTienHienLieseLorienArienJulienMarienAdrienLillienLiennaDamienLiezlLieshaLieuLiezelDarrienLiebaDarien

Sibling names for Lien

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Lien

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