Brother-and-sister panda twins born in June at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo have been given names. The female giant panda cub is named Lei Lei and her twin brother is called Xiao Xiao, according to the Tokyo metropolitan government.
The zoo is training the pandas to become used to human voices and other sounds before showing them to the public in January, it said Friday.
According to the metropolitan government, the name "Xiao Xiao" means "the light of dawn will shine and become brighter," and "Lei Lei" means "a beautiful flower will bloom from buds and lead to a bright future."
The zoo, which had solicited ideas from the public for their names, received about 190,000 suggestions from all over the nation. Its selection committee decided on the names after narrowing down candidates to five for the male cub and six for the female.
With the agreement of Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike and the approval of China, the panda names were officially decided.
"They are very good names. Combining the names [Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei] can mean a bright dawn leading to the future. I hope people will wait for the day when they can meet the cute twin pandas," Koike said at a regular press conference on the same day.
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