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Chinese surname

Surname Lim

林

Lim is the Hokkien, Teochew and Hakka spelling of the Chinese surname 林, meaning grove or forest.

Characters for the surname Lim

The spelling Lim is common in Hokkien, Teochew and Hakka romanization.

  • 林

    grove, forest; surname

    Hokkien lîm / Teochew lim5 / Hakka lìm / Mandarin lín

    attested

林 all spellings of lín

Possible characters for Lim

Lim 林 lín · Hokkien · Hakka
In our records the spelling Lim stands for 林.
CharacterMandarin reading · romanization of the spelling
林lín · Hokkien · Hakka

Other spellings of the same character

  • Ling 林Foochow, Mandarin (pinyin), Cantonese
  • Lam 林Cantonese, Hakka

About the surname Lim

Lim is the Hokkien, Teochew and Hakka spelling of the surname 林, meaning grove or forest. Wiktionary notes that the readings lîm (Hokkien), lim5 (Teochew) and lìm (Hakka) are the ones used for the surname. It is Lam in Cantonese and Lin in Mandarin. According to JPN, the surname peaked in the 1940s with 2,524 baby girls.

Lim in official JPN data

1940s
Boy: 2,256 · 13.2% Girl: 2,524 · 13.4%
1950s
Boy: 997 · 11.1% Girl: 1,297 · 10.1%
1960s
not in the top 10
1970s
not in the top 10
1980s
not in the top 10
1990s
Girl: 829 · 8.3%
2000s
not in the top 10
2010s
not in the top 10
People registered with Lim as their first name (as published by JPN), by decade of birth, for the decades in which it was in the top 10 for its sex in the JPN Chinese table. In these records the name JPN publishes is often the surname. Bar length shows the name’s share of that decade’s top-10 total for the sex (the percentage after the count), because those totals differ between decades. Source: JPN via data.gov.my (CC BY 4.0)

Sources

  1. Wiktionary: 林 · en.wiktionary.org · meaning
  2. MDBG: 林 · mdbg.net · meaning

Names are shared across communities. The categories on this site are for browsing only: they describe a name and its spelling, not anyone’s ethnicity, religion or background.

Entry ID: mn00034 · Updated · Report a mistake