Ling (surname)

Ling is a surname which can be of either Chinese, English, or Nordic origin.

"Ling" is the Roman alphabet spelling of multiple Chinese surnames.

According to traditional stories, the surname pronounced Líng () in Mandarin originated during the Zhou Dynasty as an occupational surname for a court official responsible for the storage and handling of ice. King Wu of Zhou's brother Kang Shu () had a son who held this post, and Kang Shu's descendants later adopted Líng as their surname.

There is also a less-common surname pronounced Lìng () in Mandarin. In some cases, it may be a shortened version of the surname Linghu (). People with this surname include:

"Ling" may also be an Eastern Min, Northern Min, or Wu transcription of the surname pronounced in Mandarin as Lín (). People with this surname spelled as "Ling" include:

One other rare surname () also pronounced Líng in Mandarin is believed to be used by only eight people in China. People with this surname include:

The following Chinese people have the surname Ling, but the characters for their Chinese names are not known:

The Vietnamese surname Linh originated from the Vietnamese pronunciation of a different character pronounced Líng in Mandarin (), which is not used as a surname in Chinese.

The English surname Ling, also spelled Linge, may have two different origins: one from a word used in Lincolnshire meaning "heath", and the other as a toponymic surname referring to the parish of Lyng, Somerset.

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