Lucinda is an elaborated form of Lucia — from the Latin *lux* ("light") — first coined by Cervantes in *Don Quixote* (1605) for the character Lucinda, and popularized in English literature thereafter. **A top-200 US baby name from 1880 to 1900 and again in the 1960s-70s**. **Lucinda Williams (born 1953)** — **American singer-songwriter; three Grammy Awards; her 1998 album *Car Wheels on a Gravel Road* won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album and is on *Rolling Stone*'s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time; *Time* magazine named her "America's best songwriter" (2002)**; a foundational figure in the Americana / alt-country movement. **Lucinda in *Don Quixote* (1605)** — the noblewoman whose love story with Cardenio forms one of the most-celebrated interpolated tales in Cervantes's masterpiece; inspired Shakespeare and Fletcher's lost play *Cardenio*. **Lucinda Childs (born 1940)** — American postmodern choreographer and dancer; collaborated with Philip Glass and Robert Wilson on *Einstein on the Beach* (1976). **Lucinda Riley (1965-2021)** — Irish author; *The Seven Sisters* series sold 30+ million copies. **Lucinda Matlock** — one of the most-beloved figures in Edgar Lee Masters's *Spoon River Anthology* (1915). **Lucinda Green** — British Olympic equestrian; six-time Badminton Horse Trials winner.
Featured throughout literature and American music.
Lucinda reduces to eight — the number of Car Wheels.