Cincinnati Zoo Announces Fiona The Hippo's Baby Brother's Name

Hippopotamus mother and calf

Photo: Getty Images

The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden have announced the name of Fiona the hippo's baby brother today (August 15), according to the Zoo's website.

The Zoo's hippo care team selected two names, Ferguson and Fritz, from thousands of name suggestions and asked the public to weigh in online as to which they preferred. Fritz got 56% of the over 220,000 votes.

“We would have been happy with either name, but we really think the name Fritz fits this spunky little guy’s personality,” Cincinnati Zoo’s head hippo keeper Wendy Rice said. “We also thought it was funny that it was suggested because ‘Fritz’ is here due to Bibi’s birth control being ‘on the fritz’.”

The Zoo asked for name suggestions last Monday (August 8) and was overwhelmed by the response. Just two days later, the Zoo had received 90,000 suggestions from every U.S. State, as well as more than 60 countries.

“In all my years at Jotform I can’t recall an instance when I witnessed an organization receive that many form responses in such a short time,” Chad Reid, VP of Marketing & Communications at Jotform, said. “We’re thrilled that our powerful form software played a small part in Fritz receiving his awesome name.”

Fritz was born at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden on August 3. He is still bonding with his mother Bibi inside for now, but the Zoo says it won't be long until it starts habitat and hippo introductions.


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