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
Luca
Luca was outside the SSA top 1000 in the U.S. as recently as 2000. By 2024 it had reached its peak inside the top 25 — a quarter-century climb driven almost entirely by sound, not…
- Baby commentary
Luka
Luka peaked in 2024 at rank 94 — its all-time SSA high. The name didn't enter the U.S. top 1000 until 1995. The thirty-year climb is unusual because Luka isn't a single-language n…
- Baby commentary
Lyla
Lyla peaked at rank 83 in 2024 — meaning the name is still climbing. The Y-spelling overtook the I-spelling Lila in American usage around 2010, mirroring the broader shift toward…
- Baby commentary
Madeline
Madeline peaked in 1998 at rank 41 and is currently at #87 — a 26-year decline that hasn't quite stopped. The name's slow descent has been overtaken by the Y-spelling Madelyn , wh…
- Baby commentary
Madison
Madison entered the SSA top 1000 only in 1985, hit No. 2 by 2000, and is now sliding gracefully through the 40s. The reason for its sudden arrival is one of the cleanest examples…
- Baby commentary
Maeve
Maeve hit its peak rank in 2024 at #75 — meaning the name is still on its growth curve. The trajectory from outside the SSA top 1000 in 1990 to inside the top 75 today is one of t…
- Baby commentary
Magnolia
A four-syllable, deliberately ornate flower name climbing from outside the SSA top 1000 to rank 138 in 14 years suggests something specific about the naming aesthetic that produce…
- Baby commentary
Margot
When a name climbs from outside the SSA top 1000 in 2010 to rank 126 in 2024, you can usually trace the climb to a specific cultural anchor. Margot's anchor is unusually identifia…
- Baby commentary
Maria
Maria has been continuously inside the SSA top 100 for every single year since records began in 1880 — a 145-year run that puts it in the company of Elizabeth , James, and almost…
- Baby commentary
Mary
Roughly 75 years at the absolute top of the SSA chart is a record no other American girls' name has matched. Mary held rank 1 from 1880 through 1946 and again from 1953 through 19…
- Baby commentary
Mason
Mason was the second-most-popular boys' name in America in 2011, just behind Jacob . By 2024, it has fallen out of the top 40. The arc — from #2 to #42 in thirteen years — is one…
- Baby commentary
Mateo
Mateo entered the SSA top 1000 in 1996 at #837. Twenty-eight years later, in 2024, it cracked the top 10. That climb tracks something bigger than a naming trend — it tracks the de…
- Baby commentary
Matteo
Matteo hit its all-time SSA peak in 2024 at rank 138, its first ever year in this chart neighborhood. The trajectory is one of the cleanest first-time arrivals in the boys' top 20…
- Baby commentary
Maya
Maya is one of the rare names that means something different in nearly every culture that uses it, and is used in nearly every culture that has a writing system. Hebrew, Sanskrit,…
- Baby commentary
Messiah
Messiah peaked in 2021 at rank 187 and now sits at 203 in 2024. The chart line shows a word-name that climbed steadily through the 2010s on the broader aspirational-vocabulary wav…
- Baby commentary
Mia
Is Mia a Scandinavian name, an Italian name, or a Spanish name? The answer for most American parents in 2024 is: yes. Mia is one of the rare girls' names that exists almost identi…
- Baby commentary
Miles
Miles peaked in 2024 — its highest U.S. ranking ever, in any year of the SSA record. That is unusual for a name with deep historical roots. Most names with Miles's lineage have pe…
- Baby commentary
Millie
Millie peaked at rank 86 in 2024, which represents the highest position the name has held in continuous SSA records. The name spent most of the 20th century as a casual nickname r…
- Baby commentary
Milo
Milo peaked in 2022 at rank 109, its all-time SSA high, after climbing from outside the top 500 across two decades. The name has the ideal current-aesthetic profile: four letters,…
- Baby commentary
Myles
Myles peaked in 2024 at rank 99 — its all-time SSA high. The Y-spelling Myles has been climbing while the I-spelling Miles has been climbing even faster. The two spellings togethe…
How we work
Editorial policy →
Topic selection, verification, corrections.
How we gather data
Methodology →
Sources, processing pipeline, limitations.