美玲 ('beautiful + tinkling jade') is a common female given name across the Chinese-speaking world. The most famous historical Meiling —
宋美龄 (Soong May-ling), wife of
蒋介石 (Chiang Kai-shek) — uses the homophone
龄 ('age'), not
玲. The
玲 spelling is the everyday choice for ordinary names; in Taiwan it is also tied to filmmaker
周美玲 (Zhou Meiling).
