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
Leilani
Leilani peaked in 2022 — meaning the name is still on its growth curve. The current rank of 66 is the highest Leilani has ever held in continental American usage, and the trajecto…
- Baby commentary
Leo
Three letters. Two syllables. One of the fastest climbs of any short name in modern SSA history. Leo went from #190 in 2000 to top 25 in 2022 — and unlike most short-name trends,…
- Baby commentary
Levi
Levi sat at #525 in 1990. By 2022 it was top 10. That is a 500-rank climb in a single generation — among the steepest sustained ascents in the SSA boys' record this century. The s…
- Baby commentary
Liam
In 2017, Liam quietly took the No. 1 spot on the SSA boys' chart and has not let go since. That is eight straight years at the top — longer than Jacob's late-90s reign, longer tha…
- Baby commentary
Lincoln
Lincoln went from rank 762 in 2003 to rank 31 in 2017 — a climb of more than 700 positions in fourteen years. That's one of the steepest sustained ascents in 21st-century American…
- Baby commentary
Lucas
Lucas hit its peak rank in 2017 and has held inside the top 10 every year since. That's a different shape from most popular boys' names, which spike and fade. Lucas plateaued — an…
- Baby commentary
Luis
Luis peaked in 2007 at rank 47 and has slid to 130 since. The chart shape tracks the broader migration patterns of Hispanic-American naming through the 2000s and 2010s. A long hig…
- Baby commentary
Luna
Luna was outside the SSA top 1000 in 2002. By 2022 it had peaked at #11, and today it sits at #13 — a twenty-year ascent that ranks among the steepest girls'-name climbs of the ce…
- Baby commentary
Madelyn
The SSA tracks at least four major spellings of this name as separate entries: Madeline , Madelyn, Madeleine, and Madilyn. Madelyn currently leads the cluster at #65, with Madelin…
- Baby commentary
Malachi
Malachi peaked in 2006 at rank 119 and has settled at 149 in 2024. The chart shape is unusually flat for a biblical name — most peaked biblical picks slide harder than this. Malac…
- Baby commentary
Margaret
More than 1.26 million Americans have been named Margaret since the SSA started tracking, putting it among the top 10 deepest girls' names in American history. The 1921 peak at ra…
- Baby commentary
Maverick
Maverick wasn't a U.S. boys' name in any meaningful sense before 1986. It entered the SSA top 1000 that year, the same year Top Gun (1986) put Tom Cruise's call sign Maverick in f…
- Baby commentary
Max
Max peaked in 2009 at rank 95 and now sits at 175. Over 165,000 American boys have carried the name as their full given name, not counting the considerably larger group of Maxwell…
- Baby commentary
Melanie
A name that peaked at rank 80 in 1972 and is still in the top 150 fifty years later has settled rather than faded. Melanie has been doing exactly that, currently at #122. Few name…
- Baby commentary
Michael
From 1954 to 1998 — forty-four consecutive years — Michael was the #1 boys' name in America. No other name in SSA history has held the top spot that long. The dethroning, when it…
- Baby commentary
Miguel
Miguel peaked in 2007 at rank 53 and has slid to 189 in 2024. Nearly 189,000 American boys have carried this name. The chart shape is the textbook profile of a Spanish-coded mid-c…
- Baby commentary
Mila
Mila was outside the SSA top 1000 in 2003. Mila Kunis married Ashton Kutcher in 2015. The name peaked at #14 in 2018 and has held a tight band in the high 20s and low 30s since. T…
- Baby commentary
Myla
Myla peaked at rank 186 in 2023 and now sits at the same level, with about 20,700 cumulative American girls on SSA record. The chart history is almost entirely a 2010s and 2020s s…
- Baby commentary
Nathaniel
Nathaniel peaked in 2002 at rank 78 and has slid to 144 in 2024. The chart shape is unusual. A long, gentle 1980s and 1990s climb, a brief plateau around the millennium, and then…
- Baby commentary
Nolan
Nolan peaked in 2015 at rank 59, then did something unusual: it didn't fade. Ten years later it's at rank 64, having held its position better than most 2010s climbers. That kind o…
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Editorial policy →
Topic selection, verification, corrections.
How we gather data
Methodology →
Sources, processing pipeline, limitations.