Lin (surname) - Different Versions of The Name

Different Versions of The Name

• This family name is common among the Malaysian Chinese community. However, because the vast majority of Chinese Malaysians romanised their surnames according to the pronunciations of their respective southern Chinese dialects, it is very rarely romanised as 'Lin'. The Hakka, Hokkien and Teochew communities romanise it as 'Lim' whereas the Cantonese-speaking community uses 'Lam'.
• A Korean surname 임 Im (Korean name) is the Korean equivalent of Lin. Specifically, only the first and by far the more numerous of the two clan branches of 임, 수풀 림 (Supul-Lim), is equivalent to Lin. The second, 맡길 임(Matgil-Im), is equivalent to the rare Chinese surname Ren.
• The Vietnamese surname, Lâm, was formerly written using the same Chinese character.
• In Singapore, although "Lim" and "Lam" are generally more common variants, the extremely rare spelling "Lynn" can be found in select families of Chinese, Japanese, or other East-Asian ancestry (also transcribed using the 林 character) and bears no known relation to the English or Scottish surname of the same spelling, or alternate spelling "Ling".
• According to an unofficial count undertaken by the American company infoUSA, "Lam" is the third most common surname found in Canadian telephone directories.
• A rare Chinese surname which is also transcribed Lin is 藺 (pinyin Lìn).
• A common Japanese surname, Hayashi, is written with the same character 林, also meaning forest, but it is a false friend, unrelated to the development of the Chinese surname and its variants.
• Indonesians of Chinese ancestry bearing this surname sometimes spell it as "Liem."
• Filipinos of Chinese descent with this surname mostly use the Hokkien spelling "Lim", as the majority have Fujianese ancestry. It is sometimes found in hispanicised compound surnames such as "Limtiaco"; this type of Filipino surname is often derived from the original name of a Spanish-era immigrant patriarch.
• Prominent Thai-Chinese royalist families with this surname are bestowed by member of the royal family some indigenised derivative such as "Limthongkul" "Sirilim".