Lin can be a pinyin transcription of one of several Chinese surnames, with 林 (pinyin Lín) being overwhelmingly the most common. The literal meaning of this surname is "forest". A rare Chinese surname which is also transcribed Lin is 藺 (pinyin Lìn).

Famous people surnamed 林:

• Lin Biao, CCP leader
• Lin Sang, athlete
• Lin Sen, Republic of China leader
• Lin Yang-kang, Republic of China politician
• Lin Yutang, writer
• Lin Zexu, 19th century official and diplomat
• Maya Lin, artist and architect

LIN also stands for Local Interconnect Network, which is a bus protocol for computer communications.