Given name & surname
Ling
“as sweet as the tinkling of a bell”
Ling is used as a given name and a surname. One Chinese interpretation is “as sweet as the tinkling of a bell.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Chinese interpretation is “as sweet as the tinkling of a bell.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Chinese.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1977. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Ling through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 215
- 18 boys · 197 girls
- Most popular year
- 1981
- 13 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for girls is 7 in 2024. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for girls was 13 in 1981. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 7,057 as a first name in 2020; 10,043 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Ling’s family of names
Ling has a related form in Lyng. In English usage, Ling has a related form in Lin.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 2
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 18
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Ling
- Ruan LingyuChinese silent film actress1910–1935
- Gao LingChinese badminton playerborn 1979
- Chen LingChinese archer (born 1987)
- Li LingChinese athletics competitor (1985-)
- Zhu Ling3rd century Chinese Cao Wei state general170–223
- Wang LingChinese basketball player (born 1978)
- Ling Ling ChangMember of the California State Assemblyborn 1976
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Ling, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Lai
“a dark-skinned man”
10% boys · 90% girls
Tang
Tang is a surname from Mandarin. It is used in English, Danish, Tagalog, and Indonesian.
>99% girls
Yin
“a silvery woman”
>99% girls
Sheng
“one who is victorious”
4% boys · 96% girls
Mi
Mi is a feminine given name from Chinese. It is used in Vietnamese.
>99% girls
Yen
“one who is desired”
23% boys · 77% girls
Oanh
“oriole”
>99% girls
Ong
Ong is a surname from Vietnamese, ultimately from Chinese. It is used in English, Tagalog, Indonesian, and Cebuano.
>99% girls