ly

Ly is a term with multiple meanings across languages and fields, including as a surname, a historical dynasty, a unit of distance, and a country-code domain.

In Vietnamese, Lý is a common surname and the name of the Lý dynasty, which ruled northern Vietnam from around 1009 to 1225. In English-language texts, the dynasty is sometimes written as Ly.

As a given name, Ly appears in various cultures and may be used independently or as a shortened form of longer names.

In science and astronomy, ly is the abbreviation for light-year, the distance that light travels in one year, about 9.46 trillion kilometers or 5.88 trillion miles.

In internet usage, .ly is the country-code top-level domain for Libya, and the domain hack bit.ly is widely used as a short link service. The .ly domain has also been employed in various creative URL shorteners and marketing domains.