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
- Baby commentary
Zaid
Zaid peaked in 2018 and sits at rank #662 with 7,056 total SSA bearers. It's one of several Arabic-origin Z-names that have found a broader American audience in the past decade, p…
- Baby commentary
Zyair
Zyair peaked in 2024 and ranks #683 with 2,707 total SSA bearers — genuinely rare by any measure. It's an American coinage that follows the Z + vowel-rich construction popular in…
- Baby commentary
Adhara
Adhara is the name of the second-brightest star in the constellation Canis Major — and in ultraviolet light, it's the brightest object in the sky other than the sun. It's also an…
- Baby commentary
Alexis
In 1998, Alexis was one of the most-given girls' names in America — a moment that's easy to forget now that the name has slipped to #506 . With over 343,000 recorded bearers, it c…
- Baby commentary
Alicia
Alicia carries 230,104 cumulative American girls on SSA record, sits at rank 436, and reached its peak in 1984. The chart traces a sharp 1970s climb, a sustained early-1980s plate…
- Baby commentary
Alijah
Alijah sits at rank 430 with 13,567 total American boys carrying the name, peaking in 2021 as a contemporary respelling of Elijah. The trajectory shows the name climbing through t…
- Baby commentary
Alison
Alison has been in continuous use in England since the medieval period, which makes it one of the longer-running girl names in the English-speaking world. It peaked in America in…
- Baby commentary
Alisson
Alisson peaked in 2024 and currently holds #551 , with just over 6,400 recorded bearers. It's a double-S spelling of Allison — a Germanic name with medieval French transmission —…
- Baby commentary
Alivia
Alivia carries 34,158 cumulative American girls on SSA record and currently sits at rank 396, with a 2008 peak. The chart traces a clean millennium-era arc: essentially zero pre-1…
- Baby commentary
Alonzo
Alonzo is the kind of name that sounds like it belongs on a jazz musician or a point guard — and it has, often. That association with a certain Black American cultural tradition i…
- Baby commentary
Alyssa
Alyssa carries 313,912 cumulative American girls on SSA record and currently sits at rank 399, with a 1999 peak. The chart traces a textbook millennial arc: minimal pre-1980 prese…
- Baby commentary
Anakin
Anakin peaked in 2023 and holds at current rank #592 , with 5,410 total SSA bearers. It is, without any ambiguity, a Star Wars name — George Lucas invented it for his 1977 prequel…
- Baby commentary
Anaya
Anaya carries 17,080 cumulative American girls on SSA record and currently sits at rank 405, with a 2016 peak. The chart traces a clean modern climb: minimal pre-2005 presence, sh…
- Baby commentary
Anderson
Anderson peaked in 2012 at the height of the surname-as-first-name wave and now sits at rank 356, a mid-tier position with 33,090 American boys carrying the name. The trajectory t…
- Baby commentary
Angel
Angel is a Greek word (angelos, meaning "messenger") that became a Latin theological term, then an English word, and finally a given name used across multiple cultures and both ge…
- Baby commentary
Annalise
Annalise is the kind of compound name that makes linguists happy: Anna (Hebrew, "grace") fused with Lise (the French and German diminutive of Elizabeth, meaning "pledged to God").…
- Baby commentary
Ariya
Ariya is one of those names that looks freshly invented but has roots going back thousands of years. The Sanskrit origin connects it to the concept of nobility and honor — and the…
- Baby commentary
Arlette
Arlette is a name with a medieval French pedigree that most Americans have never encountered — and that obscurity is exactly what makes it interesting in 2025. With under 7,500 re…
- Baby commentary
Armani
Armani peaked in 2022 and currently holds #527 , with about 11,500 recorded bearers. It's a name that most people immediately associate with a fashion house — Giorgio Armani's lux…
- Baby commentary
Arturo
Arturo peaked in 2005 and sits at current rank #577 , with 56,633 total SSA bearers. It's the Spanish and Italian form of Arthur — a name with one of the most contested etymologie…
How we work
Editorial policy →
Topic selection, verification, corrections.
How we gather data
Methodology →
Sources, processing pipeline, limitations.