The Asian elephant calf born at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute on February 2, 2026 has a name. She is Linh Mai, pronounced LIN-my, Vietnamese for spirit blossom, chosen by public vote and announced on February 13 when she was 11 days old.
She is the first Asian elephant born at the Washington, D.C. zoo in nearly 25 years.
How the public picked the name
The zoo put four names on its website from February 3 through February 12 and let anyone vote by donating. Five dollars was the minimum, and every dollar counted as one vote. All four candidates drew on the Vietnamese heritage of the calf’s mother, Nhi Linh.
Linh Mai won with $22,885, or 39 percent of the total. Tú Ahn, meaning talented, gifted, bright and intelligent, finished second with $20,627 and 35 percent. Tuyết, Vietnamese for snow, took third with $8,153.70 and 14 percent. Thảo Nhi, meaning gentle and beloved, came fourth with $7,227 and 12 percent.
Across the ten days of voting, the naming raised $58,892.70.
The name is built from two words. Linh means spirit or soul. Mai refers to the apricot blossom, the flower associated with Tết, the Lunar New Year, which began on February 17 that year. The calf was named into the week her mother’s culture marks as a beginning.
Where the money goes
Every dollar raised through the vote went to the zoo’s Asian elephant conservation program, which works on movement ecology and rewilding, genetics and health, nutrition and wellness, and the facilities and technology that elephant care depends on.
The split between public and private money at the Smithsonian explains why a naming vote matters at all. Federal funding covers the essentials for every animal at the institution: food, medicine, animal care staff, and keeping the buildings running. The research that helps Asian elephants here and in their range countries is funded entirely by donations, memberships and money spent inside the park. A vote for a name is one of the few moments when a person at home can put money straight into that second column.
Asian elephants are an endangered species, and the zoo puts the number remaining in the wild at fewer than 50,000. The Smithsonian’s own species profile notes that India holds close to half of them, and that elephants range over far larger areas than most land mammals, which is why they tend to be among the first species to feel it when habitat is broken into pieces. That range problem is what the movement ecology work is aimed at.
What happened after the vote
The naming announcement was written eleven days into Linh Mai’s life, and the months that followed did not go the way anyone would have scripted. In May the zoo reported that Nhi Linh had been unwilling to nurse her calf, and that Linh Mai had been raised on formula by her care team. She thrived on it.
In July the zoo posted video of her first swim. On August 28 it marked her seventh month with a look back at her milestones. She now appears on the zoo’s Elephant Cam, which streams the herd to anyone with a browser.
For a species whose calves are hard to raise, and harder still after a failed nursing start, that is the part of this story worth sitting with. The vote bought a name. The keepers, the veterinarians and the nutritionists bought the seven months.
Who else is in the herd
Linh Mai joins the herd at Elephant Trails, which includes her mother Nhi Linh and the bull Spike, who arrived from Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in March 2018 and weighs roughly 13,000 pounds. Spike was born at Zoo Miami in 1981 and moved to the Calgary Zoo in 1992, after Hurricane Andrew damaged part of Zoo Miami’s elephant habitat. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Plan recommended breeding him with Trong Nhi and Nhi Linh.
Asian elephant calves remain uncommon in North American zoos. ZooReviews has covered the twin calves born at Rosamond Gifford Zoo and the arrival of Dakari at Sedgwick County Zoo. Each one is a small addition to a population that grows slowly and loses ground quickly.
More on the species, including the herd’s individual histories, is on the Smithsonian’s Asian elephant profile.
Quick answers
- What does the name Linh Mai mean?
Spirit blossom. Linh means spirit or soul, and Mai refers to the apricot blossom, the flower associated with Tet, the Lunar New Year.
- When was Linh Mai born?
February 2, 2026, at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, D.C. She is the first Asian elephant born there in nearly 25 years.
- How was the name chosen?
By public vote from February 3 to February 12, 2026. Votes were cast by donating, with a five-dollar minimum and one vote per dollar. Linh Mai took 39 percent.
- How much did the naming vote raise?
$58,892.70, all of it directed to the zoo's Asian elephant conservation program.
