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
Kevin
Kevin ranks #545 with 228 entries, registered male. This is one of the most chronically deadpan human-name pet picks on the chart — a name so generic-American-male that putting it…
- Pet commentary
Kira
Kira sits at #468 with 260 entries, registered female. The two-syllable shape (KEE-rah) sits between several different cultural lineages — Russian (Кира, a feminine form of Cyrus)…
- Pet commentary
Kirby
Kirby ranks #542 with 230 entries, registered male. The name carries multiple converging cultural anchors — Kirby the pink Nintendo character (1992-onward), Jack Kirby the comic-b…
- Pet commentary
Kuma
Kuma ranks #557 with 223 entries, registered male. The name comes from Japanese 熊 (kuma, meaning "bear") and sits firmly in the Japanese-pet-naming register. Owners reaching for K…
- Pet commentary
Leila
Leila ranks #521 with 237 entries, registered female. The name has Arabic and Persian roots (ليلى, meaning "night") and carries a soft, vowel-rich shape that lands well on small,…
- Pet commentary
Lenny
Lenny ranks #437 with 283 entries, registered male. The name is a friendly short form of Leonard (from Germanic roots meaning lion-strong), but the call name carries none of that…
- Pet commentary
Lincoln
Lincoln sits at #474 with 257 entries, leaning male. The two-syllable shape (LING-kun) is a presidential surname doing duty as a contemporary given name, and the pet version follo…
- Pet commentary
Lobo
Lobo ranks at #627 with 196 entries, registered male. The name is the Spanish word for wolf, and on a pet registry it is one of the cleanest direct-translation picks: a one-word S…
- Pet commentary
Luigi
Luigi ranks at #605 with 203 entries, registered male. The name is the Italian form of Louis — Germanic-rooted, traditionally translated as "famous warrior" — and it has been quie…
- Pet commentary
Major
Major sits at #462 with 264 entries, leaning male. This is a rank-as-name pick — military terminology converted into a pet name, the same family as Captain, Colonel, and Sergeant.…
- Pet commentary
Mandy
Mandy ranks at #710 with 169 entries, registered female. The name is a diminutive of Amanda or Miranda, used as a standalone first name since the 1970s. On a pet it sits firmly in…
- Pet commentary
Marco
Marco ranks at #683 with 178 entries, registered male. The name is the Italian and Spanish form of Mark, derived from the Latin Marcus, and on a pet it carries a continental-Europ…
- Pet commentary
Marty
Marty ranks #422 with 293 entries, registered male. The name is a friendly short form of Martin (from Latin Martinus , derived from Mars, the Roman god of war), but the call name…
- Pet commentary
Merlin
Merlin ranks at #632 with 195 entries, registered male. The name is the wizard-character anchor in Arthurian legend, and on a pet registry it lands on dogs and cats given a delibe…
- Pet commentary
Milly
Milly ranks at #667 with 182 entries, registered female. The name is a diminutive of Millicent, Mildred, Camilla, or Amelia — the parent names rarely appear on pets, but Milly has…
- Pet commentary
Mishka
Mishka ranks at #628 with 196 entries, registered as gender-neutral on this chart. The name is a Russian-language affection diminutive of Mikhail, with the secondary meaning of "l…
- Pet commentary
Miso
Miso ranks #439 with 282 entries, registered gender-neutral. The name comes from Japanese miso (the fermented soybean paste central to Japanese cuisine), and it sits firmly in the…
- Pet commentary
Monkey
Monkey ranks at #599 with 205 entries, registered male. The name is one of the cleanest examples of the species-mismatch joke on the pet chart — a dog or cat called Monkey because…
- Pet commentary
Moxie
Moxie ranks #530 with 234 entries, registered female. The name comes from the early American soft drink Moxie (introduced 1876), which evolved into a noun meaning "nerve" or "spun…
- Pet commentary
Mugsy
Mugsy ranks at #630 with 196 entries, registered male. The name is a 1930s-American gangster-movie nickname that has carried over almost entirely into pet naming, with a particula…
How we work
Editorial policy →
Topic selection, verification, corrections.
How we gather data
Methodology →
Sources, processing pipeline, limitations.