Merly

Merly, along with Lyo, were mascots of the inaugural Summer Youth Olympics, held in Singapore in 2010. They were first unveiled on 21 November 2009.

Merly got her name from “mer” (meaning the sea) and “ly” stands for liveliness and youthfulness respectively. Her name was the winning entry in a naming competition submitted by Tung Chi Jun. She was designed as an anthropomorphic merlion with a flowy blue and white mane. Although she has scales on her body, Merly has legs instead of a tail unlike the actual Merlion.

The official Olympics page provides a brief write-up on Merly:

Merly is a merlion cub who loves exploring the waters around and beyond Singapore. Although merlions are omnivorous by nature, Merly sticks to a vegetarian diet out of a deep respect for all living things. Merly is friendly and a great listener – when she makes a friend, she is a friend for life. Always ready to lend her support to worthy causes, Merly is especially passionate about environmental issues as many of her friends have fallen ill from pollution. She believes that everyone has a part to play in working towards a sustainable future and is working hard to spread the message one person at a time. Her dream is to become a scientist one day, so that she can find more ways to protect Mother Nature.

Cubix International, the creative agency commissioned to create the mascots, initially sought to develop robot mascots, as a nod to Singapore’s status as a “technologically advanced country”. However, research on Olympic mascots prompted them to focus instead on animal mascots.

As with almost all other Olympic mascots, Lyo and Merly adorned many of YOG 2010 memorabilia, including plushies, debit cards and stamps.

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