Lin (林)
A Taiwanese surname.
林 Lin
- Zhuyin
- ㄌㄧㄣˊ
- Pinyin
- lín
- Wade-Giles
- Lin
- Taiwanese Hokkien (Tâi-lô)
- Lîm Lîm is the literary (文讀) reading, while nâ is the character's colloquial (白讀) reading.
- Hakka (Sixian)
- lim¹¹
- Rank in Taiwan
- 2nd most common surname, roughly 8.33% of the population (2023 Ministry of the Interior figures)
What the character means
'Forest, grove'; it also refers to a gathering of people or things of the same kind.
Where the surname comes from
Traditional genealogies trace the surname to Lin Jian (林堅), son of the Shang-dynasty minister Bi Gan (比干); Lin Jian himself is said to have been born in a forest. A second account derives it from a son of King Ping of Zhou whose courtesy name was Lin. Hall name (堂號): 西河堂.
Saying it 我姓林 — wǒ xìng lín (ㄨㄛˇ ㄒㄧㄥˋ ㄌㄧㄣˊ), "my family name is 林"
Sources: rank and share, 內政部 全國姓名統計分析 (Ministry of the Interior, National Name Statistics), data as of 2023-06-30. Taiwanese Hokkien readings, 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 (MOE Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi), 百家姓 appendix. Hakka, 教育部臺灣客語辭典 (MOE Dictionary of Taiwan Hakka), 百家姓表, Sixian (四縣腔).