linnet

noun

1. A small passerine bird, the common linnet (Linaria cannabina syn. Carduelis cannabina), in the finch family Fringillidae, native to Europe, western Asia, and north Africa.

   “⁠I do but sing because I must, And pipe but as the linnets sing: And unto one her note is gay, ⁠For now her little ones have ranged; ⁠And unto one her note is changed, Because her brood is stol’n away.”

   “I heard a linnet courting His lady in the spring […]”

2. (US)A house finch (Haemorhous mexicanus), of North America.

name

1. A female given name from English, occasionally recorded since the 19th century.

   “Lindy herself hated the name Lindy. She said it sounded like a girl in pink gingham. At the beginning of this school year she'd started making all the teachers address her by her full name, Linnet. (She'd been named for an English bird that a soldier had mentioned to their mother during the war.) At first Karen had tried to call her that too, but it had felt so unnatural that she'd gradually given it up.”