Lin
Masculine · “forest”
Lin is given to both — 863 boys and 1,034 girls since 1880. See Lin as a girl 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 1898 — 127 years ago. The typical Lin alive today was born around 1953, making them about 72 years old. About 500 people named Lin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lin most popular?
Lin peaked in 1898, reaching #1121 nationally. See the whole 1898 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
- 1898
- Most boys named
- 195327 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1121reached in 1898
- Change vs 2022
- 0.0%5 in 2024, 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
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Lin sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
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.
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What they receive
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Lin
Masculine
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 500 people named Lin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lin in 2025?
- Lin is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Lin with classmates?
- Lin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More L names
The most-given names starting with L, all years combined.
Larry#1084 · Lawrence#518 · Louis#249 · Logan#53 · Liam#1 · Lucas#10 · Luke#33 · Leonard#637
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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