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
Bastian
Bastian is the shortened, Continental European form of Sebastian — one of the most beloved names in global naming culture — that manages to feel both more intimate and more distin…
- Baby commentary
Berkley
Berkley is a place-name turned surname turned first name, an Old English compound meaning "birch meadow" that has been moving steadily into baby-name territory alongside its varia…
- Baby commentary
Cain
Cain is one of the most symbolically loaded names in the Western canon — the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, the first murderer in biblical narrative, ranked #974 with a 2014 peak…
- Baby commentary
Calum
Calum is the Scottish Gaelic form of Columba, the Latin word for dove — and it carries a lean, one-syllable feel that the fuller Latin original can't match. Currently ranked #906…
- Baby commentary
Campbell
Campbell on a girl is a bold choice, a Scottish clan surname with a somewhat fierce historical reputation, now being worn as a first name with an ease that suggests naming culture…
- Baby commentary
Carly
Carly is a feminine diminutive derived from the Old High German name Karl, meaning free man or full-grown man — a root whose feminine forms span Carla, Carla, Carolina, and Charlo…
- Baby commentary
Celina
Celina occupies a specific and interesting niche: it's simultaneously a Latin moon name, a variant of Selena, a Scandinavian form of Celine, and a name with deep presence in Latin…
- Baby commentary
Cheyenne
Cheyenne carries more history per syllable than almost any other name on the American charts. Drawn from the Algonquian word for the people who speak a language unlike ours (somet…
- Baby commentary
Cielo
Cielo means sky in Spanish, and the name carries that image directly — open, luminous, high above the everyday. With 4,421 SSA records and a peak in 2024, Cielo is still in its ea…
- Baby commentary
Coleson
Coleson is a modern elaboration of Cole — a name that has been generating variants for decades as parents look for ways to give a popular short name more formal length. Ranked #91…
- Baby commentary
Colten
Colten peaked in 2009 and carries 16,116 SSA records. At rank #895, it's the alternate-spelling cousin of Colton — same sound, one letter different, slightly more unusual on the p…
- Baby commentary
Curtis
Curtis peaked in 1962 and has 260,314 SSA records — making it one of the most historically substantial names in this batch, a name that had its golden era in mid-century America a…
- Baby commentary
Dafne
Dafne is the Italian and Spanish spelling of the Greek myth's laurel nymph — and that single dropped letter does a surprising amount of work. It sheds the Anglicized layer from Da…
- Baby commentary
Dane
Dane peaked in 1986 and carries 33,289 SSA records. At rank #880, it's a concise, confident name — four letters, one syllable, no ambiguity. It carries a Scandinavian origin and a…
- Baby commentary
Darian
Darian peaked in 1994 and carries 16,782 SSA records. At rank #901, it's a variant of Darian/Darin/Darren/Dorian that sits at an interesting crossroads of Persian imperial history…
- Baby commentary
Darwin
Darwin peaked in 1958 and holds rank #839 with 26,100 SSA records. It sits in the inventor-surname naming category alongside Edison and Tesla — names chosen not just for sound but…
- Baby commentary
Derrick
Derrick peaked in 1980 and holds rank #818 with 145,055 SSA records — one of the largest total counts in its tier. This is a name with real American history: a generation defined…
- Baby commentary
Dillon
Dillon peaked in 1992 and carries 64,964 SSA records. At rank #868, it's the quieter cousin in the Dylan/Dillon family, same sound, different letter, different implied reference p…
- Baby commentary
Edison
Edison peaked in 2018 and holds rank #827 with 12,244 SSA records. It's a name in the sweet spot of the inventor-surname trend — the kind of name that feels smart and historical w…
- Baby commentary
Eiden
Eiden sits at rank #806 with 1,570 SSA records and peaked in 2024, which tells you something useful: this name is still in its upward arc. It's a variant spelling of the Irish cla…
How we work
Editorial policy →
Topic selection, verification, corrections.
How we gather data
Methodology →
Sources, processing pipeline, limitations.