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
Lucille
Lucille is having a quiet resurgence as a pet name — the same retro-grandma wave that made Maude and Harriet appealing for dogs has carried Lucille along with it. There's warmth i…
- Pet commentary
Macaroni
Macaroni as a male pet name at rank 1206 is firmly in the deliberate-absurdist register of pet naming — right alongside Linguine, Biscotti, and Spaghetti. The name is impossible t…
- Pet commentary
Marcus
Marcus is a Latin name derived from Mars — the Roman god of war — that has been in continuous use in English-speaking countries since the Roman Empire. At rank 1054 in the pet reg…
- Pet commentary
Mario
Mario is one of the most globally recognized names in pop culture, and it arrived there through a plumber with a red hat and a remarkable commitment to saving a princess. The 2023…
- Pet commentary
Mars
Mars ranks #860 with 137 male registrations. The name is the Roman god of war and the fourth planet from the sun, and on a pet license it functions as one of the cleanest mytholog…
- Pet commentary
Marshall
Marshall ranks #848 with 139 male registrations. The name is an Old French occupational surname meaning "horse-keeper" or "farrier," later evolving to mean a high-ranking military…
- Pet commentary
Mavis
Mavis is a song thrush in Old French, and the name carries that origin in its sound: something slightly musical, slightly wild, and entirely its own. It sat untouched in naming da…
- Pet commentary
Maxi
Maxi ranks at #715 with 168 entries, registered neutral. The name is the affectionate diminutive of Max, and on a pet registry it functions as the household-intimacy version of on…
- Pet commentary
May
May is the kind of name that feels like sunlight — simple, clear, and without pretension. At rank 977, it's chosen by owners who want something that sounds like a person without b…
- Pet commentary
Mike
Mike on a pet is a specific kind of humor: the maximally ordinary name applied to an animal. It's the naming equivalent of calling a giant dog Tiny — the comedy comes from the mis…
- Pet commentary
Miko
Miko ranks at #788 with 148 entries, registered male. The name carries multiple Japanese-language readings — "beautiful child" (美子) is one common interpretation, and miko (巫女) ref…
- Pet commentary
Mina
Mina ranks at #736 with 162 entries, registered female. The name is a multilingual short form: it appears as a diminutive in German (for Wilhelmina), Persian (where it means glass…
- Pet commentary
Moe
Moe is the friend's name, the regular at the diner, the guy who's always around and always reliable. At rank 986, it's a small-count name with a specific kind of appeal: it works…
- Pet commentary
Mollie
Mollie ranks #830 with 141 female registrations. The name is a vintage spelling variant of Molly (itself a diminutive of Mary), and on a pet license it usually signals deliberate…
- Pet commentary
Monte
Monte has the ease of a name that could belong equally to a sun-worn rancher or a well-dressed Italian grandfather. It sits at a geographic and cultural crossroads that gives it u…
- Pet commentary
Morty
Morty has had a strange decade. It went from a dusty old-man nickname to a cult-status name thanks entirely to an animated show, and now it sits comfortably in the middle tier of…
- Pet commentary
Mozart
Mozart is a name that makes a statement about the owner's relationship with classical music — and about their sense of humor. Naming a male pet after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart signa…
- Pet commentary
Mya
Mya ranks at #772 with 152 entries, registered female. The spelling is the streamlined modern variant of Maya, and on a pet registry it functions as the deliberately-modern crosso…
- Pet commentary
Nathan
Nathan is a solid, understated human name that arrives in the pet registry through the most predictable route: a family who considered it for a child, loved it, used it for the do…
- Pet commentary
Nelson
Nelson ranks #839 with 140 male registrations. The name is an English patronymic surname ("son of Neil") and on a pet license carries multiple distinct cultural anchors that pull…
How we work
Editorial policy →
Topic selection, verification, corrections.
How we gather data
Methodology →
Sources, processing pipeline, limitations.