Scientists have found the most beautiful-sounding baby names for parents living in the United Kingdom and the United States, according to the Daily Mail.
The groundbreaking research, which the University of Birmingham conducted, used phonetics and scored the baby names on how much emotion they evoked when they were said aloud. Sophia topped the list for girls in the U.K. and the U.S., while Zayn and Matthew topped the list for boys' names in the respective countries.
Although the study suggests that some baby names sound nicer than others, other factors play an important role in how beautiful a name is, including gender, family history, and cultural influences.
Winter conducts the groundbreaking study
The study was conducted by Dr. Bodo Winter, an associate professor of cognitive linguistics at the University of Birmingham. He found that names starting with the letter 'E' were shown to be more pleasing to people's ears. The names Ellie, Emily, Evelyn, Eva, and Elena were ranked nine to 13.
Vegetation-inspired names also made the cut in the most beautiful baby names, with Ivy, Lily, and Violet all making the top 25. Matthew, which nabbed the top ranking, means gift of God. He said that the name has many positive connotations associated with it when it is spoken aloud.
Julian, William, Isaiah, and Leo completed the top five when it comes to the most beautiful-sounding boys' names in the United States. Scientists found the names of male royals to be the most beautiful sounding across the Atlantic Ocean. Louie, William, and George ranked in the top ten, coming in fourth, fifth, and seventh, respectively.
Harry misses out on the top 10
Harry missed the top ten, ranking in the 17th spot as the most beautiful-sounding name for boys in the United Kingdom. Names ending with an 'ee' sound proved popular for girls. The names Zoe and Rosie took second and third spots, respectively. The names Sophie and Ivy came in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Winter started this study by building from a 2018 research published by The University of Warwick, which analyzed words to determine the ones that spark emotions. He said that the names that ranked the most highly were the ones that provoked the most positive emotions when spoken out loud. He added that they are likely to sound most beautiful to the human ear.
Using the 2018 study as a blueprint for Winter's research, he compiled the top 100 names for girls and boys in the two regions and translated each of them phonetically. He broke each name into syllables and capitalized the letter sounds that might be emphasized when pronouncing the said name.
They finally calculated the sum of each name's score. They used these final figures to rank each list of the top 50 names, according to the New York Post.
