Author
Jack Lin
Founder & Editor-in-Chief
Based in Taipei, Taiwan
Jack is a software engineer based in Taipei, Taiwan. He built NamesPop because the naming tools he found online all felt the same: slow, ad-heavy, and better at gathering SEO keywords than answering a parent's actual question.
He spends most of his writing time on trend analysis, data provenance, and the question of how software changes the small family decisions that used to happen in living rooms. Lately he has been thinking about how algorithms shape naming itself — what it means when a top-100 list starts to feel like a recommendation engine.
He lives with a rabbit named Money, which is where most of his pet-naming opinions come from.
2,387
Total pieces
131
Articles
1,085
Baby commentary
1,171
Pet commentary
Jack Lin's contributions
- Pet commentary
Janet
Janet is a medieval diminutive of Jane (itself a medieval form of Joan) and in pet naming it lands squarely in the grandma-name irony category. With 28 registry records it's a del…
- Pet commentary
Jango
Jango pulls in two directions at once: Django Reinhardt's jazz genius and Jango Fett's ruthless bounty-hunter cool from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones . Both associations project…
- Pet commentary
Jed
Jed is a short-form of Jedediah — a Hebrew name meaning beloved of the Lord — but on a pet it carries no theological weight whatsoever. It reads as an old-school American Western…
- Pet commentary
Jordy
Jordy is the affectionate diminutive form of Jordan — casual, sporty, slightly sun-bleached, the kind of name that fits a dog who would absolutely fetch a ball into the ocean and…
- Pet commentary
Judah
Judah is an ancient Hebrew name meaning "praised," borne by the fourth son of Jacob in the Old Testament and the namesake of both the tribe and the kingdom. On a pet, it carries t…
- Pet commentary
Kaiya
Kaiya is a variant spelling of Kaia or Kaya — names with roots across multiple languages including Sanskrit ("elder sister," "body"), Japanese ("ocean" or "shell"), and Old Norse…
- Pet commentary
Kashi
Kashi is a Sanskrit name for the sacred city of Varanasi, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and a major pilgrimage site in Hinduism. It also appears in…
- Pet commentary
Kenobi
Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of the most beloved characters in the Star Wars universe — wise, self-sacrificing, and quietly powerful. Naming a pet Kenobi is a declaration of fandom, but…
- Pet commentary
Kerry
Kerry is an Irish place name — County Kerry in Munster — that became a given name and then migrated to pets through the same path as many geographic names: it sounds like a first…
- Pet commentary
Khole
Khole is a variant spelling of Khloé — the Kardashian family variant of the Greek name Chloe. The K-opening and -e ending mark it as a pop-culture derivative, and pets with this n…
- Pet commentary
Kika
Kika is a diminutive used in Spanish and Portuguese for Francisca — the same root that gives us Paquita, Kiko, and Quica. It's a term-of-endearment nickname that functions beautif…
- Pet commentary
Kima
Kima is best known as Detective Kima Greggs from HBO's The Wire (2002-2008) — one of the show's most quietly compelling characters, whose name became a minor tribute name for fans…
- Pet commentary
Kimi
Kimi is a Japanese name and nickname — from kimi (君), meaning "you" used in an intimate or affectionate register, or from Kimiko compressed to its first syllable. For a female pet…
- Pet commentary
Kola
Kola works on multiple levels: it echoes "koala" for the instantly endearing factor, references the kola nut (source of cola flavor and West African cultural significance), and si…
- Pet commentary
Koukla
Koukla is the Greek word for doll, used as a term of endearment in Greek-speaking households, and 28 registry records reflect almost entirely Greek-American owners who applied the…
- Pet commentary
Kujo
Cujo is Stephen King's 1981 novel about a rabid St. Bernard — and naming a dog Kujo (with the K spelling) is either an act of ironic defiance or a genuine tribute to one of horror…
- Pet commentary
La
La, appearing in the NYC and Seattle pet licensing registries as a standalone name, is almost certainly a data artifact rather than an intentional pet name. At this rank tier, sin…
- Pet commentary
Lavender
Lavender is a botanical name that doubles as a color — pale purple, associated with calm, softness, and the Provencal fields that produce the essential oil. On a female pet it sit…
- Pet commentary
Lefty
Lefty is a trait-based nickname turned official pet name. It belongs to animals who are noticeably left-pawed, hold up a left leg, or had some injury or characteristic that drew a…
- Pet commentary
Lennox
Lennox is a Scottish surname-origin name — from Gaelic Leamhnachd , referring to elm trees — that has picked up strong associations with boxing through Lennox Lewis, the British-C…
How we work
Editorial policy →
Topic selection, verification, corrections.
How we gather data
Methodology →
Sources, processing pipeline, limitations.