A scientific study has revealed 100 of the 'most beautiful-sounding' baby names. Is yours on the list?
Finding the perfect baby name isn't easy - many parents want a cool baby name or a unique baby name that will stand out on the class register, but there are also plenty of names that parents love but don't feel 'cool enough' to use (which is why sticking to the most popular baby names might be preferable).
If you're struggling to settle on the perfect moniker, it turns out science might be able to help. Personalised gift retailer My 1st Years partnered with Associate Professor of Cognitive Linguistics Dr Bodo Winter to perform a study on scientific principles that could potentially indicate how beautiful-sounding a name is.
By looking at a list of the most popular baby names in the UK, they found that certain principles of linguistics and psychological phenomenons do make certain names more phonetically appealing and therefore more 'beautiful-sounding'. Their research resulted in a list of 100 of the most appealing boys' and girls' names.
50 most beautiful-sounding boys names
- Zayn
- Jesse
- Charlie
- Louie
- William
- Freddie
- George
- Ali
- Daniel
- Riley
- Omar
- Arthur
- Rowan
- Leo
- Joseph
- Theo
- Harry
- Noah
- Toby
- Jude
- Isaac
- Teddy
- Samuel
- James
- Elijah
- Luke
- Edward
- Logan
- Riley
- Max
- Liam
- Roman
- Ryan
- Jack
- Benjamin
- Lucas
- Henry
- Finn
- Jacob
- Mason
- Nathan
- Alex
- Alexander
- Theodore
- Adam
- David
- Hunter
- Muhammad
- Sebastian
- Dylan
50 most beautiful sounding girls names
- Sophia
- Zoe
- Rosie
- Sophie
- Ivy
- Phoebe
- Violet
- Willow
- Hannah
- Ellie
- Emily
- Evelyn
- Rose
- Eliza
- Eva
- Chloe
- Penelope
- Lucy
- Ruby
- Lily
- Olivia
- Emma
- Eleanor
- Bella
- Luna
- Ella
- Thea
- Nancy
- Isabella
- Maya
- Amber
- Daisy
- Amelia
- Anna
- Georgia
- Charlotte
- Elizabeth
- Maria
- Iris
- Aurora
- Jasmine
- Alice
- Eden
- Jessica
- Aria
- Harper
- Sienna
- Grace
- Ada
- Erin
Explaining how the sounds of names can influence parents' choices, Dr Winter said, "Research by Stephanie Shih shows that parents try to avoid choosing first names that would clash with their family names. If your family name starts with ‘S,’ such as Scott, Smith, Saunders, or Sullivan, it may be advisable not to have a first name that ends in ‘S,’ such as Marcus, Charles, or Nicolas – because the two ‘s’ sounds will blend into each other."
He added, "In another recent paper, Berger and colleagues found… that when there are major hurricanes in the US, the next generation of babies will be more likely to feature sounds that occur in the name of the hurricane, such as Katie after Hurricane Katrina."
He continued, "This seems surprising at first: nobody would want to name their child after a devastating natural disaster, of course! But when a particularly dangerous hurricane wreaks havoc over a country, the name of the hurricane will be mentioned again and again in the media. This means that we are exposed more to the same sounds, and it is known from psychological research that things that are more familiar to us are generally liked more, a phenomenon known as the ‘mere exposure effect.’ As a result, the speech sounds contained in hurricane names are actually more likely to crop up in names of the next generation."
While the research suggests that some baby names are indeed more beautiful-sounding than others, there are a lot of factors that contribute to how appealling a name can really be - from cultural influences to gender and family history.
If you're still searching for that perfect baby name, why not give our baby name generator a whirl or this Tinder for baby names app? You can also find inspiration in the oddest of places, from country music to these priceless millionaire baby names!
