It’s a decision that many people spend months agonising over. 

Now, a study has revealed that soon–to–be–parents may have good reason to worry about their child’s name. 

Scientists from Carleton University in Canada have uncovered how your name can influence your job prospects. 

In their study, the team asked participants to choose between two job candidates, when all they knew about them were their names. 

Their results revealed that people with smoother–sounding names were more likely to be hired than those with harsher–sounding names. 

This will come as good news for people with names like Anne, Luna, Lewis, Miles, and Warren.

However, it may raise alarm bells for people named Rita, Katie, Eric, Chris, or Zach. 

‘These findings suggest that the way a name sounds could be yet another factor influencing hiring biases. In situations where limited information about a candidate is available, it appears that a name can carry significant weight,’ noted study authors, Dr. David Dishu and Professor Pexman in an article for The Conversation. 

Scientists from Carleton University in Canada have revealed how your name can influence your job prospects (stock image) 

The study found that people with harsher–sounding names like Rita and Chris were less likely to be hired

While it’s something you’re given at birth, studies have shown that your name is used to judge everything from your personality to your performance at work. 

However, until now, the link between your name and your job prospects has remained unclear. 

‘In our latest study, we were curious to see how these associations might affect judgments in a real–world context: hiring,’ the experts explained. 

‘Of course, employers usually have much more to go on than a name, but there are many instances in which candidates are screened based on only limited information.’

The researchers designed job ads that looked for a candidate high in one of six personality traits – honesty–humility, emotionality, extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience.

These ads were then shown to 60 participants, who were also given a pair of names and asked to decide who would be a better fit for the job. 

One name was ‘sonorant’ (smoth–sounding), while the other name had ‘voiceless stops’ (harsher–sounding).

The results revealed that participants were more likely to choose the candidate with a sonorant name for jobs requiring high honesty–humility, emotionality, agreeableness and openness.

People with smoother–sounding names like Anne and Lewis were more likely to be hired (pictured left: Anne Hathaway, pictured right: Lewis Hamilton)

Next, the researchers tested what happened when participants were provided with additional information – a picture or video – about the candidates. 

They found that when people saw pictures of candidates, the influence of their name decreased. 

And when they saw a video of them, their name no long had any effect on their judgements of personality. 

‘We also asked participants how well a given name fit the job candidate in the video,’ the researchers added. 

‘When people felt a name suited a candidate—regardless of sound—that candidate was judged more positively on almost every measure, including warmth and competence.

‘In other words, there seems to be a benefit of having a name that fits, even though it’s not yet known why some people’s names seem to suit them better than others.’

The best known example of this effect is known as ‘bouba/kiki’. 

Across langauges and cultures, people tend to match the word ‘bouba’ with round shapes, and ‘kiki’ with spiky ones. 

However, scientists still don’t know why this happens. 

‘Various explanations exist, including the physical sensation of pronouncing the words or the way the sounds of the words imitate the features of round versus spiky objects,’ the researchers added. 

The bouba/kiki effect seem to suggest that all humans recognise a universal language – one that we’ve barely scratched the surface of. 

The bouba–kiki effect

The bouba–kiki effect is the association of made–up words ‘bouba’ with a round shape and ‘kiki’ with a spiky shape.

This association shows a correspondence between speech sounds and visual properties.

Researchers have found people across 25 different languages make the link, which has ‘implications for the evolution of spoken language’.