These are the 100 'most beautiful-sounding' baby names, according to science - they're pretty but would you choose one?

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

1. Zayn
2. Jesse
3. Charlie
4. Louie
5. William
6. Freddie
7. George
8. Ali
9. Daniel
10. Riley
11. Omar
12. Arthur
13. Rowan
14. Leo
15. Joseph
16. Theo
17. Harry
18. Noah
19. Toby
20. Jude
21. Isaac
22. Teddy
23. Samuel
24. James
25. Elijah
26. Luke
27. Edward
28. Logan
29. Riley
30. Max
31. Liam
32. Roman
33. Ryan
34. Jack
35. Benjamin
36. Lucas
37. Henry
38. Finn
39. Jacob
40. Mason
41. Nathan
42. Alex
43. Alexander
44. Theodore
45. Adam
46. David
47. Hunter
48. Muhammad
49. Sebastian
50. Dylan

50 most beautiful sounding girls names

1. Sophia
2. Zoe
3. Rosie
4. Sophie
5. Ivy
6. Phoebe
7. Violet
8. Willow
9. Hannah
10. Ellie
11. Emily
12. Evelyn
13. Rose
14. Eliza
15. Eva
16. Chloe
17. Penelope
18. Lucy
19. Ruby
20. Lily
21. Olivia
22. Emma
23. Eleanor
24. Bella
25. Luna
26. Ella
27. Thea
28. Nancy
29. Isabella
30. Maya
31. Amber
32. Daisy
33. Amelia
34. Anna
35. Georgia
36. Charlotte
37. Elizabeth
38. Maria
39. Iris
40. Aurora
41. Jasmine
42. Alice
43. Eden
44. Jessica
45. Aria
46. Harper
47. Sienna
48. Grace
49. Ada
50. 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!