Names

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." -William Shakespeare


Good question. Last year, our friend Connor (who posts at There's Always a Catch once in a blue moon) introduced me to the Bouba/Kiki effect. Basically, people who spoke different languages were showed a spiky shape and a blob shape and asked to name one of them Bouba and the other Kiki.
For no apparent reason, I wondered whether these "sharp" and "round" sounds carried over to names of people.

 So, let's take a look.
 2012 Top 10 Baby Boy Names (According to the Social Security website)

1. Jacob - One sharp sound- "c"

2. Mason- No sharp sounds

3. Ethan- No sharp sounds

4. Noah- No sharp sounds

5. William- No sharp sounds

6. Liam- No sharp sounds

7. Jayden- No sharp sounds

8. Michael- One sharp sound- "ch"

9. Alexander- One sharp sound- "x"

10.Aiden- No sharp sounds

2012 Top 10 Baby Girl Names (According to the Social Security website)

1. Sophia- No sharp sounds

2. Emma- No sharp sounds

3. Isabella- One sharp sound- "s"

4. Olivia- Kind of sharp sound- "v"

5. Ava- Kind of sharp sound- "v"

6. Emily- No sharp sounds

7. Abigail- One sharp sound- "g"

8. Mia- No sharp sounds

9. Madison- No sharp sounds

10. Elizabeth- One sharp sound- "z"

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Boys' names- 3/10 names have hard sounds, 7/10 have only soft sounds

Girls' names- 3/10 names have hard sounds, 2/10 have kind of hard sounds, 5/10 only have soft sounds

So it looks like, in general, names have soft sounds, and the girls' names in the U.S. might tend to be a little harder.

But let's look back a couple years.

2000 Top 10 Baby Boy Names (According to the Social Security website)

1. Jacob- One hard sound- "c"

2. Michael- One hard sound- "ch"

3. Matthew- No hard sounds

4. Joshua- No hard sounds

5. Christopher- One hard sound- "ch"

6. Nicholas- One hard sounds - "ch"

7. Andrew- No hard sounds

8. Joseph- No hard sounds

9. Daniel- No hard sounds

10.Tyler- No hard sounds

2000 Top 10 Baby Girl Names (According to the Social Security website)

1. Emily- No hard sounds

2. Hannah- No hard sounds

3. Madison- No hard sounds

4. Ashley- No hard sounds

5. Sarah- No hard sounds

6. Alexis- One hard sound- "x"

7. Samantha- No hard sounds

8. Jessica- One hard sound- "c"

9. Elizabeth- One hard sound- "z"

10. Taylor- No hard sounds

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Boys' names- 4/10 names have hard sounds, 6/10 have only soft sounds

Girls' names- 3/10 names have hard sounds, 7/10 have only soft sounds

Soft sounds were still used more, but boys' names might have had more hard sounds.

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What do you think? Do names' sounds have a lot to do with their usage? Are boys or girls more likely to have hard sounds in their names? Have naming preferences changed a lot in the past decade or so?