Irish Wedding News
06/06/2013
The findings, which was published the journal Public Library of Science ONE journal, revealed that it could be as a result of mothers and fathers striving to create the best possible image for their child.
Scientists carried out analysis on popular names given to 15 million babies and found that male names were much more likely to contain broad and 'larger' sounding vowels that were emphasised and sounded more masculine when spoken.
When it came to female names, the majority sounded 'smaller' to give a more feminine impression of the person.
As a result, names like Thomas or Tom or considered more masculine and dominant, while names like Emily are thought to be more feminine.
Study co-author, Dr Benjamin Pitcher, from the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences at Queen Mary, University of London, and his team explained names which sound larger and prove popular with parents who have boys or sound smaller and are given to girls are linked to the calls of wild animals.
Dr Pitcher added: "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.
"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."
Dr Alan McElligott, also from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, suggested that the choice of baby names was much more than a social exercise.
He said: "An evolutionary perspective might be that parents are choosing names that help to boost their son or daughter's success in life by increasing the chance of passing on their genes.
"In the future, we are interested in determining whether this gender bias in vowel sounds of first names is also seen in languages other than English."
The researchers looked at records of the most popular names from England, Australia and the United States for the past decade, using conventional techniques used by linguists to determine whether the names contained large or small vowels.
(JP)
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Parent's Choice Of Baby Name 'Influenced By Evolution'
A parent's choice of name for their child could be influenced by evolution, according to a new study.The findings, which was published the journal Public Library of Science ONE journal, revealed that it could be as a result of mothers and fathers striving to create the best possible image for their child.
Scientists carried out analysis on popular names given to 15 million babies and found that male names were much more likely to contain broad and 'larger' sounding vowels that were emphasised and sounded more masculine when spoken.
When it came to female names, the majority sounded 'smaller' to give a more feminine impression of the person.
As a result, names like Thomas or Tom or considered more masculine and dominant, while names like Emily are thought to be more feminine.
Study co-author, Dr Benjamin Pitcher, from the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences at Queen Mary, University of London, and his team explained names which sound larger and prove popular with parents who have boys or sound smaller and are given to girls are linked to the calls of wild animals.
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Dr Pitcher added: "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.
"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."
Dr Alan McElligott, also from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, suggested that the choice of baby names was much more than a social exercise.
He said: "An evolutionary perspective might be that parents are choosing names that help to boost their son or daughter's success in life by increasing the chance of passing on their genes.
"In the future, we are interested in determining whether this gender bias in vowel sounds of first names is also seen in languages other than English."
The researchers looked at records of the most popular names from England, Australia and the United States for the past decade, using conventional techniques used by linguists to determine whether the names contained large or small vowels.
(JP)
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