The science why some names, like Sophia, just sounds better than others.
Choosing a baby name is both fulfilling and precarious. Many parents rack their brains trying to come up with the perfect moniker—one that honors their lineage, where they were born, the personality they’ll hopefully have, or all of the above. Obviously, no easy feat.
To make things more complicated, more and more parents are experimenting with trendy or unique-sounding names, which at best can make their kid stand out, and at worse, leave them a bit isolated.
But maybe relying on science could be a more reliable strategy. As author Bill Sullivan, Ph.D., explained in an article for Psychology Today, parents can incorporate a phenomenon known as the Bouba/Kiki effect to help ensure that a name remains appealing throughout a child’s entire life, simply because it will always be pleasant sounding.
A person uses the Babbel appBabbel
Babbel’s Biggest Sale of the Year: Get 67% off. Lifetime Subscriptions For $199
The term “Bouba/Kiki effect” emerged from a set of experiments in which people were presented with both a round and spikey shape, and asked to link the shapes to either the word “bouba,” or “kiki.” The discovery that people consistently agree that rounded shape = “bouba” and the spiky shape = kiki showed that people inherently make image associations for certain words. Collective synesthesia, if you will.
Kiki denotes sharpness, where bouba denotes softness. www.labvanced.com
This concept applies to names as well. Sullivan cited a 2015 study which noted that "bouba," or round, smooth sounding names, like “Bob or Molly,” tend to get associated with "easy-going" personalities. Whereas kiki names, like “Kirk and Kate,” tend to sound more abrupt and could be more likely to be seen as “rude.”
In 2022, Bodo Winter, an associate professor in cognitive linguistics at the University of Birmingham, and his team somewhat cemented this theory, after asking hundreds of participants to listen to a list of the 100 most popular names in the UK and the US, and then analyzing those emotional reactions.
There was a clear winner: "Sophia," originating in Greece and meaning "wisdom." While one could argue that the list, which mainly used only names popular in the UK and the US, was somewhat limiting, the name spans many times and cultures, becoming "Sophie" in France and Germany and even "Safiya" in the Muslim communities.
Sophias of the world, rejoice. Photo credit: Canva
History and symbolism aside, what really makes Sophia pop comes down to the “soft start of ‘s,’ a roundness offered by the ‘o,’ and a smooth ending with the ‘ia,’” Winter stated. This combination results in universal pleasantness.
If you’re curious as to whether or not your name is audibly pleasing, below are the 50 top ranking names for both boys and girls in the US, courtesy of My1stYears:
1. Matthew, Sophia
2. Julian, Zoe
3. William, Everly
4. Isiah, Sophia
5. Leo, Riley
6. Levi, Ivy
7. Joseph, Paisley
8. Theo, Willow
9. Isaac, Ellie
10. Samuel, Emily
11. Miles, Evelyn
12. James, Eva
13. Elijah, Elena
14. Luke, Chloe,
15. Noah, Nova
16. Santiago, Penelope
17. Owen, Lucy
18. Logan, Lily
19. Liam, Olivia
20. Roman, Naomi
21. Ryan, Emma
22. Cooper, Natalie
23. Jack, Sofia
24. Maverick, Eleanor
25. Anthony, Violet
26. Ezekiel, Bella
27. Carter, Luna
28. Benjamin, Ella
29. Lucas, Victoria
30. Henry, Isabella
31. Jacob, Maya
32. Lincoln, Natalia
33. Mason, Amelia
34. Nathan, Savannah
35. Asher, Charlotte
36. Jackson, Stela
37. Andrew, Hazel
38. Cameron, Athena
39. Alexander, Maria
40. Theodore, Autumn
41. Adam, Kennedy
42. Gabriel, Aurora
43. Kingston, Alice
44. Daniel, Aria
45. David, Harper
46. Hunter, Serenity
47. Dylan, Nora
48. Muhammed, Grace
49. Sebastian, Elizabeth
50. Adrian, Hannah
It probably goes without saying that our own personal preferences, among many other factors, might still influence what sounds appeal to us more (I for one prefer spiky names with a little gusto) but using the simple rules of linguistics could be an interesting, and perhaps less daunting, way for parents to choose a name that’s truly timeless.