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
- Articleanalysis
Catholic Names Are Climbing Faster Than Catholic Practice. The Decoupling Has Been Underway for Decades.
Pope Francis is hospitalized. American Catholic-coded names have grown faster than evangelical names through the 2010s and 2020s. The names work without the practice.
·7 min read
- Articleopinion
Blue Ivy Is 13. Celebrity Baby Names Are Aging Better Than Their Critics Predicted.
Blue Ivy, North, Stormi, Apple, and the celebrity-baby cohort are growing up. The data shows their names aging better than predicted.
·8 min read
- Articleanalysis
Sundance Is the Best Naming Forecaster Nobody Uses
Sundance breakthrough actors predict SSA shifts two to four years out. The 2025 cohort signals which names will rise through 2027.
·7 min read
- Articleanalysis
The Wood Snake Year Will Produce a Smaller, More Distinctive American-Asian Cohort
East Asian families plan conceptions around the zodiac. The 2025 wood snake year, historically associated with low birth rates, will compress the Asian-American naming pool.
·7 min read
- Articleanalysis
Olivia and Liam Are Boring. The SSA's Real Story Lives in the Margins.
The 2024 SSA data drops in May. Top ten will look stable. The actual cultural drama is happening in ranks 50 through 300, where names move 50-100 spots per year.
·7 min read
- Articleanalysis
Should a Dog's Adoption Chances Depend on How Its Name Reads on Instagram?
Shelters facing a capacity crisis are turning to viral naming. Diamond Ring gets adopted in days. Generic names sit for months. The ethics deserve a longer look.
·8 min read
- Articleanalysis
Notre Dame's Reopening Will Quiet a Slow Catholic Name Recovery in France
Marie has been recovering in French naming data since the 2019 cathedral fire. The Notre Dame reopening closes one chapter and opens a quieter one.
·7 min read
- Articleanalysis
Spotify Wrapped Showed Sabrina Beat Taylor. The Naming Data Will Confirm It.
Sabrina Carpenter ranked alongside Taylor Swift on Spotify Wrapped 2024. Sabrina is climbing in the SSA. Taylor is not. The reason is structural.
·7 min read
- Articleopinion
The Grandparent-Name Revival Is Not About Style. It Is About Logistics.
The names millennials are choosing for their kids — Arthur, Hazel, Walter, Pearl — track Boomer survival rates. The aesthetic story is incomplete.
·7 min read
- Articleanalysis
What Names Carry After a Political Loss: A Sociological Note
We have data on names that rise after political wins. We have very little on names that travel with political losses. The category deserves attention.
·7 min read
- Articleanalysis
Quincy Jones Quietly Reshaped Black American Naming. The Data Is Mostly Unwritten.
Quincy Jones died at 91. His name's peak in Black American naming matches his cultural peak almost exactly. Almost no one has written it down.
·8 min read
- Articleanalysis
Felix Means 'Lucky.' Saltburn Said Otherwise. Parents Picked Felix Anyway.
A year after Saltburn, Felix is at its highest American ranking in 80 years. Parents are betting that 'lucky' will outlast a fictional bathtub.
·8 min read
- Articleanalysis
Hurricane Helene Will Live in the Names of Hundreds of Dogs
Two weeks after Helene struck, displaced shelter animals are arriving in Virginia and Maryland. Adopters are giving them names that record the disaster.
·8 min read
- Articleopinion
The Hispanic Names Crossing Over Have One Thing in Common
Mateo, Luna, Mia, Sofia: the Spanish-coded names dominating American charts share a survival trait. They pronounce the same way under English mishandling.
·8 min read
- Articleanalysis
Olivia Munn Named Her Daughter Méi June. Reddit Missed What Was Happening.
Olivia Munn announced her daughter Méi June via surrogate. Reddit called it clumsy. The name actually does the inheritance work Munn's body could not.
·8 min read
- Articleanalysis
Moo Deng Means 'Bouncy Pork.' American Shelters Are Paying Attention.
A Thai pygmy hippo named for a meatball became the world's most-photographed animal in September. American shelters are watching whether non-English names finally cross over.
·8 min read
- Articleanalysis
Shōgun Won 18 Emmys. The Press Could Not Decide What to Call Its Lead.
Shōgun took 18 Emmys and held the line on Japanese surname-first order in subtitles. English-language coverage flipped it within hours of the wins. The history is older than this.
·8 min read
- Articleanalysis
Brat Summer Made Charli a Real Name
Charli XCX's lime green album turned a spelling variant into a cultural unit of measure. The naming consequences will show up in next May's SSA release.
·8 min read
- Articleopinion
Very Demure, Very Mindful: What the Meme Says About Baby Names
Jools Lebron's 'demure' meme isn't about voice level. It's a referendum on how we perform tastefulness, including in the names we give our children.
·7 min read
- Articleanalysis
The Olympics Just Rewrote What Strength Sounds Like
Paris 2024 turned the redemption arc into the dominant athletic story. Now naming data is following Simone Biles, Sha'Carri Richardson, and the second-act curve.
·7 min read
How we work
Editorial policy →
Topic selection, verification, corrections.
How we gather data
Methodology →
Sources, processing pipeline, limitations.