Last name LY: origin and meaning

Ly : 1: Vietnamese (Lý): adoption of the Chinese word 李 ‘plum’; see Li 1 compare 3 below.2: Southeast Asian (Hmong): from the name of the Ly or Lee clan of the Hmong people in Laos China and Vietnam; in Chinese characters it is written 李 (see Li 1 compare 3 below). Compare Lee 8.3: Chinese: variant Romanization of the surnames 李 and 黎 see Li 1 and 2.4: Chinese: variant Romanization of the surname 呂 see Lu 6.

Source : DAFN2 : Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, ©2022 by Patrick Hanks and Oxford University Press