Girl name origins & meanings
- Chinese : Tinkling pieces of jade
How Popular Is The Name Ling
Family name origins & meanings
- English (mainly East Anglia) : habitational name from Lyng in Norfolk, so named from Old English hlinc ‘hillside’, or from either of two places in Norfolk and Lincolnshire named Ling, from Old Norse lyng ‘ling’, ‘heather’. There is also a Lyng in Somerset, so named from Old English lengen ‘long place’.
- German : variant of Link.
- Chinese :
from a word meaning ‘ice’. In ancient times, the imperial palace was
able to enjoy ice in the summer by storing winter ice in a cellar,
entrusting its care to an official called the iceman. This post was
once filled during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc) by a
descendant of Kang Shu, the eighth son of Wen Wang, who had been
granted the state of Wei soon after the establishment of the Zhou
dynasty. Descendants of this particular iceman adopted the word for
ice, ling, as their surname.