What’s In A Name? Why Your Baby Name Can Sound More Masculine Or Feminine
Why your baby name can have masculine or feminine connotations [Photo: Alicia Zinn via Pexels]
If you’re expecting a baby and you find out the sex, you’ll likely be tossing around monikers from baby name lists traditionally associated with that gender. After all, aside from a handful of names that can span both genders, most are generally associated with one sex or the other. Because, well, because it’s just always been that way. You’re hardly gonna call your baby boy Fifi are you? (No offence meant parents of boys called Fifi!)
But new scientific research has emerged that suggests merely saying a child’s name can spark an instant connection to a specific gender, not because you already think of it as a boys or girls name, but because of the way it sounds.
According to a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and reported on by Scientific American, people tend to categorise certain names to boys and others to girls based on the first phoneme (or distinct unit of sound). And that in turn can kick off a pattern of stereotypical judgments about the identity and interests of an individual.
What’s in a name? [Photo: unsplash.com via Pexels]
Researchers analysed 270 million recorded baby names in the US from 1937 and 2013 and found that names typically assigned to boys began with a ‘hard’ phoneme, or one that vibrated the vocal cords, such as the A in Adam and the B in Brian. Girls on the other hand were more often given names starting with ‘soft’ (unvoiced) phonemes, such as F in Fiona or H in Heather.
Try it for yourself, say your name and see if the first sound is made purely with your tongue and lips (so a ‘soft’ name) or if you use your throat. The ‘A’ in Adam or the ‘B’ in Bert are made through the vocal cords while the ‘F’ in Fifi, (yep we’re back to Fifi), is made with just the tongue.
One of the lead researchers, Michael Slepian, from Columbia Business School, explained to Telegraph that the way names sound can mean we automatically associate them with being masculine or feminine.
“We discovered that names can sound hard or soft,” Slepian explains. “Some names that are pronounced without any vibration of the vocal cords sound breathier and, as a result, people tended to associate these names with softness, stereotypical femininity, tenderness or those who were soft in disposition.”
‘Mmm I’m not sure I’m really a Bob kinda baby, mum’ [Photo: Roman Pohorecki via Pexels]
"Conversely, names that are pronounced with the vibration of the vocal cords sound rougher or harder, and people associate these sounds with masculinity and being tough or hard in disposition.”
Of course not all names will fit into this hypothesis and in fact there are many typical girls names that start with a hard phoneme, such as Jessica, Yvette and Barbara and vice versa boys names with a ‘soft’ phoneme, Felix, Theo and Charles and the like.
But it is interesting to realise that a first hearing of a name can spark the forming of opinions and attitudes, often before we’ve even clapped eyes on that person. So if you’re currently trying to choose a baby name remember the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ phonemes and if you fancy messing with people’s minds, well then of course you should totally name your baby boy Fifi.
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