Lindir's name is never explicitly explained, but it seems to mean 'singer' (from the common Elvish root lind-, 'song, music'). In The Lord of the Rings, his only appearance is in a brief discussion with Bilbo Baggins about the Hobbit's "Song of Eärendil", which neatly matches the interpretation of his name as 'singer'.
On a deeper level, the name Lindir perhaps tells us something about this Elf's past. During the distant history of the world, a group of Elves known as the Nandor fell away from the Great Journey into the West before reaching Beleriand, but a part of these people later crossed the Blue Mountains and settled in Ossiriand in the western shadow of the range. These people had many names, and were most commonly known as the Laiquendi or Green-elves, but they were also sometimes called the Lindi, or 'singers'. Indeed because of their presence the land of Ossiriand was also known as Lindon, which became its common name after the end of the First Age.
We have no way to be sure whether Lindir originated as one of these Lindi, or indeed whether any direct connection is intended between the two names. If there is a connection, though, it implies that Lindir's history might have run back into the First Age, placing him among those Elves who survived in Lindon when Beleriand was overwhelmed. In the Second Age, it was people from this land who accompanied Elrond eastward on the journey that led to the founding of Imladris. Based on the (admittedly rather speculative) origins of his name, then, Lindir might have been thousands of years old, and an inhabitant of Rivendell since its very beginnings.
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