Lin
Feminine · “forest”
Lin is given to both — 1,034 girls and 863 boys since 1880. See Lin as a boy nameSee other names given to both
About twenty surnames cover roughly half the population of China. Wang, Li, Zhang, Liu, Chen, Yang — and Lin, which is written with a character made of two trees side by side and means a wood. Three trees is a different character, and means a dense forest.
How old is the name Lin?
Lin first appears in US birth records in 1917 — 108 years ago. The typical Lin alive today was born around 1963, making them about 62 years old. About 900 people named Lin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lin most popular?
Lin peaked in 1952, reaching #1641 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 10,291 places below that high. See the whole 1952 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Lin
Chinese characters are frequently pictures of what they mean, and the tree family is the clearest case a beginner meets: one tree is mu, two side by side is lin, a wood, and three stacked is sen, a dense forest — so the writing system shows you the count. The surname Lin has been in use for three thousand years and is among the most common in Fujian and Taiwan, and the concentration of Chinese surnames is genuinely extreme by world standards: a few dozen names cover most of a fifth of humanity. In American records the same three letters also arrive from an entirely different direction, as an English clip, and the record cannot tell them apart.
Meaningscholars disagree
forest
As a Chinese name, Lin most often carries the character for a wood or forest, written as two trees; a different character, meaning fine jade, is also used for women. In English-speaking families Lin is a clip of Linda, Lindsey or Caroline instead, and carries whatever meaning those have.
Pronouncing Lin
LIN
One syllable. Mandarin gives it a rising tone that English cannot reproduce, and the vowel is slightly further forward than the English one; an English lin is understood everywhere.
Nicknames for Lin
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1917
- Most girls named
- 196035 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1641reached in 1952
- Change vs 2023
- +40.0%7 in 2025, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Lin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lin in Chinese — transliteration
- Llyn in Welsh — related form
Lins among us
people named Lin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Lin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lin
- #11932
- Lin on the 2025 chart
- #875
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lin went to 7 girls in 2025, but Lynn and Lyn are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 85, which makes it the 875th most-given girls’ name of the year — 11,057 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 18,909 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 229,610 for Lin itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Magalene test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Magalene climbed just as high around 1929, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Magalene's path sketches the road Lin is walking now.
Lin sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Lin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters and one syllable: unmistakable across a room or a bad line.
- It serves either child, and the records show both.
- It is a real name in Chinese and a real clip in English, so it belongs in two households.
- People will assume it is short for Linda or Lynn and will ask.
- Very short names occasionally fail minimum-length checks on forms and websites.
- In Chinese it is overwhelmingly a surname, which is worth knowing in Chinese-speaking company.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Lin to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Lin? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Lin
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Lin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lin?
- Lin is one of 3 recorded spellings. Lynn is the more common one — 69 births in 2025 against 7 for Lin.
- How popular is the name Lin in 2025?
- Lin ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lin?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Lin — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lin with classmates?
- Lin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vina#11932 · Retta#11932 · Missouri#11932 · Iola#11932 · Eddie#11932 · Thomas#11932 · Louetta#11932 · Elvina#11932
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lin and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle