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
- Baby commentary
Thatcher
Thatcher is an Old English occupational surname — from thæcker , the craftsman who thatches roofs — that entered American given-name use as part of the surname-style wave and peak…
- Baby commentary
Titan
Titan comes from Greek mythology's original ruling gods — the Titans who preceded the Olympians — and as a given name it signals ambition on an almost geological scale. Ranked #10…
- Baby commentary
Vaughn
Vaughn is the Welsh word for "small" or "junior" — a word that became a surname that became an occasional first name with a quietly distinguished feeling. Ranked #1187 with its pe…
- Baby commentary
Viraj
Viraj carries one of Sanskrit's most luminous meanings: radiant, brilliant, splendid — the quality of shining with one's own light. Ranked #1146 with a peak in 2024 and 1,792 tota…
- Baby commentary
Wendy
Wendy has a complicated naming biography. It was quite possibly invented — or at least popularized — by J.M. Barrie for the character of Wendy Darling in Peter Pan (1904), making…
- Baby commentary
Whitney
Whitney is an English place name turned surname turned given name — and for one extraordinary period, it became synonymous with the greatest voice in pop music. With 97,424 SSA re…
- Baby commentary
Wren
Wren is an Old English nature name from the small, spirited bird known for its outsized song — one of Britain's most beloved wildlife symbols — that has crossed over as both a boy…
- Baby commentary
Wylie
Wylie is an Old English surname name, likely a variant of Wiley or Willey — derived from a place name meaning "tricky stream" or "winding water," from Old English wīlīg (willow) o…
- Baby commentary
Xochitl
Xochitl is the Nahuatl word for "flower," and it may be the most culturally specific name on any contemporary American baby name list. Pronounced SO-cheel, it carries over 5,800 S…
- Baby commentary
Yadiel
Yadiel is a Hebrew-rooted name — possibly derived from Yad El , meaning "hand of God" — that has found its primary home in Puerto Rican and broader Latino communities, with a 2009…
- Baby commentary
Yakov
Yakov is the Russian and Eastern European form of Jacob, from the Hebrew Ya'akov , meaning "he grasps the heel" or "supplanter," with later folk etymological interpretations shift…
- Baby commentary
Yasmine
Yasmine is the French and Arabic romanization of a name meaning "jasmine flower" — the same root that gives us Jasmine, Yasmin, Jasmina, and a dozen other variants across dozens o…
- Baby commentary
Yazan
Yazan peaked in 2024 with only 1,842 total registered uses — a rare Arabic name that has been gaining visibility primarily through Arab American communities and the influence of A…
- Baby commentary
Yohan
Yohan is the Hebrew name John filtered through French and Korean phonology, arriving in the American name pool with a quietly cosmopolitan feel. Ranked #1160 with its peak in 2024…
- Baby commentary
Yuna
Yuna is a Japanese name meaning "gentle" or "kind" — from yū (優, gentle, superior) and na (奈, apple tree, or 那, what, much). With 2,792 SSA records and a 2024 peak, it's genuinely…
- Baby commentary
Zakari
Zakari is a variant spelling of Zachary — the Hebrew name Zekharyah meaning "God has remembered" — that emphasizes the Z opening and the -i ending in place of the standard -y. Wit…
- Baby commentary
Zakariya
Zakariya is the Arabic form of Zechariah ("God has remembered") and peaked in 2024 with 2,321 total uses. Ranked #1202, it's a name that honors a Quranic prophet while also connec…
- Baby commentary
Zia
Zia is one of those names that carries completely different meanings depending on cultural context — Arabic, Italian, Native American Pueblo — and still sounds crystalline and rig…
- Baby commentary
Zola
Zola is a name with multiple cultural identities — Italian, Zulu, and French literary — and it carries all of them with equal ease. It peaked in 2018 and has just over 9,000 SSA r…
- Baby commentary
Zoya
Zoya is a Russian and Ukrainian name meaning life — a compact, Z-initial name that sounds fashionable in 2026 without feeling invented. It arrived on American charts just recently…
How we work
Editorial policy →
Topic selection, verification, corrections.
How we gather data
Methodology →
Sources, processing pipeline, limitations.