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
- Articleopinion
Taylor and Travis, the Long Lag Before Any Naming Effect Lands
I don't believe in the parlor game of celebrities deciding what we name our babies. But Swift-Kelce will be a generational test of one specific question: does the most-watched American couple go literary or sporty? My bet is on literary, with a smart reference.
·9 min read
- Articleanalysis
What Survives the Shelter Name
Shelters batch-name dogs by alphabet, by season, by litter theme. Most of those names get erased within two weeks of adoption. The data shows which shelter names actually survive — and which the new family quietly rewrites.
·8 min read
- Articleopinion
The Pet-Nup Boom Starts at the Naming Argument
The first joint legal artifact a couple produces over a pet is not the pet-nup. It is the name. The name is where the negotiation lives, where the compromise lives, and where the eventual custody fight is rehearsed.
·8 min read
- Articleopinion
Sydney, American Eagle, and the Cost of Being on the Wrong Billboard
Sydney has been declining since 2010. American Eagle's controversial new campaign is about to clarify the trajectory. Names don't typically die from celebrity association — they accumulate a tax that shows up in the next year's birth-cohort numbers.
·8 min read
- Articleopinion
The Quiet Rule of Pet Grief: We Don't Reuse the Name
Three weeks after his ten-year-old French bulldog passed, Snoop introduced a new puppy named Baby Boy. The name reveals a pattern most multi-pet households quietly follow — and which the NYC license data confirms.
·7 min read
- Articleanalysis
Connie Francis, TikTok, and the Sound of a Decade About to Return
Connie Francis died at 87 just as TikTok rediscovered her 1962 record. The thing TikTok actually rediscovered isn't her. It's a sound register — short i, terminal ee, half-rhyme — that American baby naming has been quietly missing for fifty years.
·8 min read
- Articleopinion
The Andy Problem: When a First Name Becomes a Liability
Last week's viral Astronomer scandal turned Andy into the kind of name parents whisper about. The historical record on Karen, Chad, and others suggests the name won't disappear — it will quietly age out of new usage instead.
·8 min read
- Articleanalysis
The Krypto Effect: How a Movie Dog Rebranded Rescue
Krypto did something rescue marketing has been trying to do for decades: he reframed the shelter dog from object of pity into power fantasy. The naming data shows the moment that flip happened.
·7 min read
- Articleopinion
Labubu Summer and the Ugly-Cute Turn in Pet Names
Labubu fever isn't just a Pop Mart phenomenon. In NYC and Seattle pet registration data, names like Goblin, Gremlin, Mochi, and Dumpling are climbing fast. The aesthetic shift is real, and it has a name: ugly-cute.
·8 min read
- Articleanalysis
Why Stitch Is Suddenly a Cat Name
Disney remakes usually push their character names onto dogs. Stitch broke that rule. The data shows where the name actually landed — and why an alien character earned a permission slip a Lassie or a Pongo never did.
·7 min read
- Articleopinion
World Pride and the Names That Never Show Up in SSA Data
World Pride 2025 in DC reveals a blind spot in how we count baby names. The Social Security Administration cannot, by design, see the most consequential naming decision many Americans now make.
·7 min read
- Articleopinion
Ocean and Agnes: How Twin Naming Became a Public Statement
Amber Heard introduced her twins on Mother's Day. Ocean and Agnes frame modern twin-naming poles: hippie-coastal versus vintage-grandmother. The choice signals values.
·8 min read
- Articleanalysis
Rihanna's Third Pregnancy Will Run the Kardashian Playbook With One Letter Changed
RZA, Riot, and now a third R-name. Rihanna is using pattern naming the way the Kardashians used K. Random celebrity baby naming is over.
·7 min read
- Articleanalysis
Charlotte Has Been the Royal Name. American Parents Mostly Deny Knowing.
Princess Charlotte turns 10 on May 2. Charlotte has been a top-10 American girls' name for nearly her whole life. Most parents who chose it deny royal influence.
·7 min read
- Articleanalysis
Papal Succession Is the Largest Synchronous Naming Event in the World
Pope Francis died on Easter Monday. Leo XIV was elected May 8. The papal name change shifts the cultural register for 1.4 billion Catholics and adjacent naming pools.
·8 min read
- Articleanalysis
Bridgerton Is Trying to Bump a Name That Has No Screen Time. The Result Is the Industry's Test Case.
Shondaland announced a Bridgerton S4 character through in-universe Whistledown. Elliot has no screen time. If the name bumps, IP-only naming opens a new gate.
·8 min read
- Articleanalysis
Bluey Is Quietly the Most Powerful Pet-Naming Show of the 2020s
Bluey-coded names are up across pet licensing data. The show works for pet naming the way Friends worked for baby naming: stable cast, safe permission.
·8 min read
- Articleanalysis
Y2K Nostalgia Is Selective. Some 1990s Names Will Not Be Welcomed Back.
Madison and Mason are coming back. Britney and Tiffany are not. Millennial nostalgia rewrites which 1990s names are safe to revive.
·8 min read
- Articleanalysis
Old Money Names Are Saturated. Watch the Reversal Through 2030.
Margot, Beatrice, Adelaide: the quiet-luxury wave has hit saturation. Lieberson's pendulum is about to swing back toward unpolished.
·8 min read
- Articleanalysis
Mikey Madison Won Best Actress. The Boy-Nickname-for-Girls Trend Just Got Another Decade.
Mikey Madison's Oscar win for Anora extends the androgynous-feminine naming pattern that was supposed to fade after 2015. The cycle has more legs than predicted.
·7 min read
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How we gather data
Methodology →
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