The Tokyo metropolitan government will start soliciting ideas from the public on July 28 to name the female panda cub born a month ago at Tokyo's Ueno zoo.

The name of the cub will be decided around September when it becomes 100 days old, as it is said in China that a cub which survives for 100 days will grow up strong. The cub at the Ueno Zoological Gardens was born on June 12.

Zoo staff have been relieved to see the new cub, born to female panda Shin Shin and male panda Ri Ri, grow steadily as their previous cub died in 2012 just under a week after being born at Japan's oldest zoo, which opened in 1882.

Since the first two pandas named Kan Kan and Ran Ran arrived at the zoo in 1972, it has been following a pattern of naming pandas raised there with the same double sound.

Pandas born at the zoo in the 1980s were named Tong Tong and You You, which were named after soliciting ideas from the public.

"We want families to think of a cute name, and stay excited till it is decided," said Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike at a press conference last week.

If the female cub stays healthy until it is displayed to the public, it will be the first time in 29 years that a cub born at the zoo has been shown, after You You was born there in 1988.

The metropolitan government will receive applications online as well as in a box kept at the zoo.