What’s in a name, asked Shakespeare. Sex appeal, it appears. Using Hot-or-Not and switching names around between the same pictures, a researcher has identified which names make people “hot.”
So what are the ingredients of a sexy name? For boys, a good name will contain vowel sounds made at the front of the mouth, such as ‘e’ or ‘i’ sounds; names with fuller, rounder vowel sounds such as ‘u’ tend to score lower. So pat yourself on the back if you’re called Ben… but if your name is Paul you might have to work harder to snare a date.
The opposite is true for girls, Perfors found. Women with round-sounding names such as Laura tended to score higher than those with smaller vowel sounds. “Unfortunately for me, Amy is one of the bad names,” Perfors laments.
The finding that men with ‘small-sounding’ names are attractive might seem counterintuitive, Perfors admits. “Front-mouth vowels imply smallness,” she says. “But when girls are looking for mates, they don’t necessarily want a super testosterone-charged guy. They want someone who will hang around and be a provider.”
I infer from the above that “Dave” would be considered, well, “hot.”
Perfors also did a parallel study looking at “masculinity” of names, and correllating the popularity.
Predictably, guys with the names deemed most masculine tended to score highest. Names were generally judged masculine because they contained strong consonants such as ‘b’ and ‘k’. But girls scored higher when they had either a very feminine or a strongly masculine name; names judged to be somewhere in the middle scored worst.
The finding seems say that guys need a rugged name to impress the ladies, whereas being a tomboy is cool for girls. “So much of our culture says that tomboy stuff is ok, but wimpy guys are not,” Perfors says.
The original study paper is here.
(via GeekPress)