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Chinese scientists love Blackpink’s Jennie so much they named a fish after her

At less than 9mm, Jennie’s bumblebee goby is the smallest of its genus and the first to be found in China

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Jennie of Blackpink is the latest K-pop artist to inspire a scientific name. Photo: Getty Images
Ling Xinin Ohio
A popular K-pop star has found an unlikely place in the scientific record after researchers in China named a newly discovered fish species after her.
Jennie Ruby Jane, from Blackpink, was “a constant source of inspiration” for the master’s student who discovered the tiny black-and-yellow fish – shorter than an average human fingernail – near southern China’s Pearl River estuary.

The fish, named Brachygobius jennie, is the first bumblebee goby found in China and could provide a model for studying the biological limits of vertebrate miniaturisation, according to a paper published last week by the peer-reviewed journal Zoosystematics and Evolution.

Tian Jiangyan, who discovered the fish and also led the study, said listening to Jennie’s songs had inspired her during her studies. Naming the species after the singer was her way of acknowledging Jennie’s “positive influence” on her work.

When Tian spotted the tiny fish during fieldwork in mangrove wetlands near the Pearl River estuary in April 2025, she initially thought they were babies, but their markings did not match any species known from the area.

The Brachygobius jennie, or Jennie’s Bumblebee Goby, is a tiny black-and-yellow fish shorter than an average human fingernail. Photo: Handout
The Brachygobius jennie, or Jennie’s Bumblebee Goby, is a tiny black-and-yellow fish shorter than an average human fingernail. Photo: Handout

Back in the lab, Tian and her colleagues from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou and their collaborators took a closer look.

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