Author

Ivy Hung
Data Journalist
Based in Arizona, USA
Ivy is a data journalist based in Arizona, United States. A business school graduate now working her way into tech, she spent her early career in product marketing, project management, and marketing strategy — roles where reading a name the same way you read a brand became second nature.
She joined NamesPop because the name datasets sit at exactly the intersection she cares about: consumer behaviour, cultural identity, and what numbers tell us about decisions families make quietly, one at a time. Her writing leans on SSA and municipal pet registries the way a marketer reads a segmentation report — looking for the audiences hiding inside the aggregate.
Cross-cultural naming is her main beat, with a particular interest in how Hispanic, Asian-American, and bicultural families navigate the tension between heritage and assimilation in the American Southwest.
2,409
Total pieces
140
Articles
1,119
Baby commentary
1,150
Pet commentary
Ivy Hung's contributions
- Pet commentary
Lyric
Lyric is a word name with a genuinely musical register: not a musician's name, but the thing itself, a sung line of verse. On a pet it implies an owner who relates to their animal…
- Pet commentary
Mable
Mable is an alternate spelling of Mabel — the Victorian name derived from Latin amabilis , meaning lovable. The E-before-L spelling appears in older records and some regional trad…
- Pet commentary
Maizy
Maizy ranks 2015 in the pet registry with 49 female animals. It's a spelling variant of Maisie or Maisy — ultimately from the Scottish pet form of Margaret, meaning pearl — with t…
- Pet commentary
Maki
Maki is a Japanese name with multiple possible kanji readings — truth and hope, genuine brightness — and in American pet culture the food association often arrives first: maki sus…
- Pet commentary
Mali
Mali is a name that exists in multiple traditions simultaneously: it's a Welsh word meaning "pearl," a Thai given name, a reference to the West African nation, and a casual diminu…
- Pet commentary
Marlow
Marlow is an English place name meaning "land remaining after the draining of a pond," so thoroughly practical in origin that it becomes almost charming as a name for a living cre…
- Pet commentary
Marly
Marly is a soft variant spelling of Marley — and Marley carries one of the most specific pop culture associations in dog naming history: Marley & Me, the 2005 memoir and 2008 film…
- Pet commentary
Matty
Matty is an interesting choice for a female pet; it's typically a masculine nickname (diminutive of Matthew), but used here with a feminine gender preference in registry data. Tha…
- Pet commentary
Maude
Maude is having a moment. The old Germanic name — derived from Mathilde, meaning mighty in battle — spent decades as a joke name for elderly characters, but the same vintage reviv…
- Pet commentary
Meimei
Meimei (妹妹) is a Mandarin Chinese term meaning "little sister" — one of the most common terms of endearment used for younger sisters, girl-next-door figures, and small, sweet fema…
- Pet commentary
Mel
Mel ranks 1988 in the pet registry with 50 animals of either gender. It's a standalone short form — of Melanie, Melissa, Melvin, or Melody depending on the owner's frame — but on…
- Pet commentary
Mela
Mela is a name that feels discovered rather than invented. It's short, warm, and cross-cultural — in Italian it simply means "apple," in Sanskrit it refers to a gathering or festi…
- Pet commentary
Meli
Meli ranks 2018 in the pet registry with 49 female animals. It's a short form that functions across multiple languages — Polynesian (honey in Maori and Hawaiian), Spanish diminuti…
- Pet commentary
Miranda
Miranda is Latin for "worthy of admiration," a name that announces itself with quiet confidence and has been carried by everyone from Shakespeare's Tempest heroine to the legal do…
- Pet commentary
Mitchell
Mitchell is about as normal as a name gets — a solid, unremarkable American surname-given-name with zero inherent pet associations. Which is exactly why it works. The deliberately…
- Pet commentary
Moana
Moana is a Hawaiian and Polynesian word meaning "ocean" or "vast expanse of water" — and it became globally recognizable after Disney's 2016 animated film of the same name. On a f…
- Pet commentary
Muneco
Muñeco is Spanish for "doll" or "puppet," an endearment used in Latin American Spanish for something small, cute, and beloved. On a pet, it carries that particular Latin American…
- Pet commentary
Nano
Nano is the prefix for one-billionth of something, which makes it genuinely charming as a pet name — especially for a small animal. It's part of a miniaturized naming family that…
- Pet commentary
Natalie
Natalie is a full human name doing quiet work in the pet world. Unlike trendy invented names, Natalie brings centuries of history — it derives from the Latin natalis, meaning "bor…
- Pet commentary
Navi
Navi is a female pet name with clear gaming credentials: the fairy companion in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998), combined with the Sanskrit meaning "new," and a two-sy…
How we work
Editorial policy →
Topic selection, verification, corrections.
How we gather data
Methodology →
Sources, processing pipeline, limitations.