Lian

given name · Latin script

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

Lian is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. Recorded meaning: the name Lian is found in traditional accounts as long as 4500 years ago, part of the name of a descendant of the legendary emperors Huang Di and Zhuan Xu.

rarermore common
  • MYMalaysia≈1 in 3.1K(inferred from the name graph)
  • SGSingapore≈1 in 6.4K
  • NLNetherlands≈1 in 8.1K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

China (inferred from the name graph)

≈130,000 people, est.

Sources
285 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 2.7K (inferred from the name graph)

Ecuador

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

the name Lian is found in traditional accounts as long as 4500 years ago, part of the name of a descendant of the legendary emperors Huang Di and Zhuan Xu. Later descendants adopted Lian as their surname.

Sources 1

  • Dictionary of American Family Names

Attested across 27 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Lian counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Lian is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China—≈130,000 est.≈1 in 11K—Lian116
MY Malaysia#361≈10,000 est.≈1 in 3.1K—Lian81
EC Ecuador—6,2091 in 2.7K6.2K—14
US United States—5,9411 in 56K8.2KLian285
BR Brazil—5,1681 in 41K5.2K—1
NL Netherlands#991≈2,100 est.≈1 in 8.1K836Lian52
SG Singapore#489≈980 est.≈1 in 6.4K—Lian102
SI Slovenia—4111 in 5.1K441—5

Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; INEC — civil registry names; IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017); SURS — resident population given names; stat.si Imena rojstva — full name register (per-token frequency + rank). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Lian is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish given name23 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Philippines

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Lían, Lián, Li-An, Lìan, Liàn

  • Malay given name5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, United States

    Languages: Malay, Indonesian

    Also written 'Lian, Li-An

  • German given name9 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Germany, United States, China, Austria

    Also written Liän, Liäen, Li︠a︡n, Liaen, Liaeen

  • a separate name9 spellings in the group

    Also written Li-An, Li'An, Lián, Lïan, Līan

  • Norwegian given name7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Norway, Denmark, United States, Netherlands

    Languages: Norwegian, Danish, Swedish

    Also written Lîåň

  • French given name3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Philippines, Malaysia

    Also written Li-An, Lïan

71 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Lian is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In Norwegian, 2. Chinese : the main source of this surname is Lian Cheng, a senior minister for the state of Qi, located in present-day Shandong province.

    as a nameDictionary of American Family Names

  • In Norwegian, habitational name from any of numerous farmsteads in Trpndelag, named with the definite plural form of Li

    as a nameDictionary of American Family Names

  • Sauce airoso

    as a name25,000 nombres de bebé. La mejor guía para escoger el nombre adecuado

  • In och, to join, bring together; connect, unite, in a row; be dripping or running (tears), rippling (waves)

    as a wordSchuessler, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese (2007)

  • In Chinese, nonstandard spelling of lián

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

1850190019502000Wu Lien-teh, b. 1879Dai Ailian, b. 1916Lian Tanner, b. 1951Peng Xiaolian, b. 1953Lian Ong, b. 1956Lian Lunson, b. 1959Lian Ross, b. 1962Ni Xialian, b. 1963Pauline Chan, b. 1973
  • Wu Lien-tehb. 1879MYnot in their usual nameMalaysian physician (1879–1960)
  • Dai Ailianb. 1916CNnot in their usual nameballerina (1916-2006)
  • Lian Tannerb. 1951AUAustralian writer
  • Peng Xiaolianb. 1953CNnot in their usual nameChinese film director (1953-2019)
  • Lian Ongb. 1956NLDutch comics artist
  • Lian Lunsonb. 1959AUAustralian film director and actress
  • Lian Rossb. 1962DEGerman singer
  • Ni Xialianb. 1963LUnot in their usual nameLuxembourgian table tennis player
  • Pauline Chanb. 1973CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong actress (1973-2002)
  • Lian Bing Caibotanist

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 90 sources across 42 countries.

Official registers attesting Lian
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 202020208.2K#4,201
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 201020103K#10,678
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 200020001.2K#20,427

Reference works 8

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

Is Lian a male or female name?
Lian is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
In which country does Lian have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 131 thousand people named Lian in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled lian.
Where is Lian most common?
Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Lian is densest in Ecuador — about 1 in 2.7 thousand people — even though China holds more of our records for it.
What does the name Lian mean, and where does it come from?
the name Lian is found in traditional accounts as long as 4500 years ago, part of the name of a descendant of the legendary emperors Huang Di and Zhuan Xu. Recorded by Dictionary of American Family Names.
What are other forms of the name Lian?
In the etymology graph, Jools and Julek are forms of the same name in other languages.
How common is the name Lian?
In Ecuador, the national register counted 6,209 people named Lian in 2024, about 1 in 2.7 thousand residents.
How common is Lian compared with other names?
In Malaysia, Lian is the 361st most common given name of 388,685 given names recorded there.

What do you want to know about Lian?

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Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/lian

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 1,000 requests a day, and bulk access is licensed separately.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Lian” — the 361st most common given name in Malaysia. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Lian parses inside a full name →