Ling

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Flora in US United States, GB United Kingdom, PH Philippines and 9 more, Lu in AU Australia, CN China, TW Taiwan and 3 more, Flóra in HU Hungary and Ფლორა in GE Georgia.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 6 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Ling is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate given name35K records spelled Ling4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, China, United Kingdom, India

  Also written Lin-G, Líng, Lǐng

• French given name8.2K records spelled Ling3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, Spain, Malaysia

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Lìñğ

• English surname2.1K records spelled Ling103 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in China, United States, Australia, Malaysia

  Languages: English, Polish, German

  Also written Lin, Lynn, Лин, Lynne, 린

73 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Ling is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In German, from ahd. galingan 'to succeed'; also linked to lind- forms

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

• In German, variant of -ing, often diminutive or patronymic

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

• habitational name from Lyng in Norfolk, so named from Old English Mine ‘hillside’, or from either of two places in Norfolk and Lincolnshire named Ling, from Old Norse lyng ‘ling’, ‘heather’. There is also a Lyng in Somerset, so named from Old English lengen ‘long place’.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• 9, 3 ‘understanding’ and ‘compassion’. 2 9 ‘Tinkle’, in particular the tinkling sound of pieces of jade hanging in the wind. For the significance of jade in Chinese culture, see also yu.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In English, Norfolk, which Ekwall suggests may be derived from OE Mine hillside. Vars.: Li(e)pmann. Patr.: Lipmanovicz (E Ashkenazic).

  as a name·The Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 28 years between 1977–2024. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Zhu Lingb. 170CN3rd century Chinese Cao Wei state general
• Ma Linb. 1180CNnot in their usual nameChinese artist (1180-1256)
• Ruan Lingyub. 1910CNnot in their usual nameChinese silent film actress
• Zhang Lingb. 1957CNChinese writer
• Peter Kee Lin Ngb. 1960SGnot in their usual nameSingaporean freshwater field biologist
• Low Yen Lingb. 1974SGMember of the Parliament of Singapore
• Gao Lingb. 1979CNChinese badminton player
• Jia Lingb. 1982CNChinese comedian, actress and director
• Li Lingb. 1985CNChinese athletics competitor (1985-)
• Chen Lingb. 1987CNChinese archer (born 1987)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 342 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Ling?

We estimate roughly 96 thousand people bear Ling (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Ling have the most bearers?

Ling is most frequently recorded in Malaysia, where it is most often spelled ling.

How common is Ling compared with other names?

In Malaysia, Ling is the 25th most common given name of 325,158 given names recorded there.

Is Ling a male or female name?

Ling is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Ling mean?

Recorded meaning: person from Lyng, Norfolk, or Chinese ‘ice’