Researchers Decode Link Between Sounds Of Popular Names and Gender

Researchers from Queen Mary, University of London, conducted a study wherein they decoded the link between the sounds of popular names and gender, concluding that the name of a person gives away clues to a person's background.

People often say that a person's name says a lot about that person's character and traits. Analyzing this popular belief further, researchers from Queen Mary, University of London, conducted a study wherein they decoded the link between the sounds of popular names and gender.

Firstly, they found that a person's name gives away clues to the person's background and also suggest that many popular names come with some preconceptions. They also found that male names usually have vowel sounds that are larger and more emphasized when spoken tike Tom and John while female names have vowel sounds that are more subtle like Emily.

"The origins of names may vary but this study suggests that there is an association between the size of the sounds in first names and the sex they are associated with," explains co-author Benjamin Pitcher from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences.

Parents generally prefer larger sounding names for their sons as they relate the large sound and the size of the name to more masculine qualities. This preference comes in relation to the fact that in all mammals, including humans, larger sounds are associated with bigger individuals while sounds with high frequencies are associated with smaller ones.

"In general, western societies tend to think of relatively taller men as more masculine and more successful with the opposite sex whereas shorter, slimmer women are perceived as having attractive feminine qualities. It seems that over time the English language has developed a preference for names that reflect our society's attitudes of what we deem to be attractive qualities in the different sexes," adds Pitcher.

Dr Alex Mesoudi, co-author of the paper, says that this study could explain a lot about how biological evolution can influence human culture such as naming a child.

For the study, researchers analyzed the 15 million names from around 45 million births that were included in a 10-year dataset of the most popular names from England, Australia and the United States. The paper was published in PLOS ONE, June 6.