Native English speaker from the USA here and the name "Ming" doesn't sound bad to me at all. It's actually a super easy name for English speakers to pronounce without having heard it before. It's actually probably one of the better Mandarin names to have in an English-speaking country.

Ming doesn't mean anything bad. Actually, it's a name that is easy for US people to remember and pronounce, unlike a lot of Chinese names, so they might like that about it.

Hi Vivian! "Ming" does not have any particular meaning that I am aware of in the United States. While there are people everywhere who will ridicule anything that is different, my vote is you keep his name!

School kids will always find something to make fun of, so changing his name may not be a perfect solution. I grew up in the US and I had a professor named Ming. There was nothing weird to us about his name, in fact we were all quite fond of him. So, no — Ming doesn’t mean anything in the US.

You are right about the word colloquially having that meaning in UK English, in particular areas, but it would certainly not be the first thing that came to my mind, and it's not a word that any well-spoken person would use. However, more importantly, I think it's very sad that you would consider changing your son's name on the basis that someone in a foreign country might make fun of it. It's one thing to choose a particular name at birth, but to completely change someone's name is quite another. It might be helpful to think about what exactly you hope to gain from that - is it simply about avoiding some possible future bullying, or does this reflect something more than that? There are lots of people with foreign sounding and complicated names in the UK, many which probably mean something bad in another language - we all just get on with it. I feel strongly that people should be proud of their names and heritage, and the way to manage bullying and racism is to stand up to it (learning how to do it early will help you for the rest of your life), rather than trying your best to fit in. Good luck, whatever you decide to do!