Lina is a common female given name in Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, especially among those born after 1980. In 2011 it was one of the most popular female given names in Germany. It was initially used as a shortened form of names such as , Nikolina, , Evelina and Paulina. Since "-lina" is a diminutive suffix, it has no meaning of its own in Swedish. The Danish and Norwegian form is "Line". The Greek writing is Λίνα.
Lina is also a short form of any female name ending in "-lina", such as Angelina, Evangelina, Carolina, .
Lina is the female form of Linas, a common given name among people of Lithuanian descent. It can also be construed as a rare feminine form of .
In the Russian language, Lina (Ли́на) is a diminutive form of the female name Avelina.
In Arabic "Lina" (لينة) refers to a small, young palm tree. It means "tender" or "tenderness". In Greek it refers to the olive crown used for the hero.
The name Lina also has roots in France and China. In Chinese, "Li" () means "pretty" and "Na" () means "elegant".