 Within the top 30 cities in China, 林 is the most common surname in the city of Fuzhou, 4th most common in the city of Haikou, and 10th most common in the city of Guangzhou.In 2019 it was the 18th most common surname in Mainland China.This is an East Asian name, meaning the surname is stated "before" the given name, though East Asian persons living in Western countries will often put their surname after their given name.