Choosing Your Child's Name (According to Research)

Interesting research findings related to your child's name

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As I enter the final stretch of my pregnancy, I am asked again and again what I am planning to name the baby. What I really want to say to all of those who ask is that this is an incredibly sensitive question. No matter what answer you provide you are opening yourself up to unsolicited comments and criticism. Even knowing this though, I have always known and shared my baby’s name before birth but I am usually clear that this will be the name and I do not want to hear any commentary about the name. So, dear readers, I am planning to share my baby’s name in this newsletter but please keep in mind that this will be my baby’s name and I am not open to anything other than praise for this carefully chosen name. 

Choosing a name for your baby is an undeniably important and difficult decision to make. The name that you choose for your child will go with them throughout life. Of course, this is a personal decision that is based on countless factors— the most important being of course whether either parent has a former girlfriend or boyfriend with that name (I’m kind of kidding, but not really). However, for parents who feel stuck in this very important decision, it can help to have some research to turn to. So does research provide any insight here? How can research help you to choose the best name for your child?

Should you choose a gender neutral name?

Gender neutral names such as Carter, Avery, and Quinn seem to be increasingly popular particularly for girls but is there any science to back up this trend? Research finds that girls with more gender neutral names are more likely to complete higher levels of math and science courses. The researchers in this study controlled for parent and family issues by comparing sisters in the same family and found that this was true even for twins when one had a more feminine name and one had a more gender neutral or masculine name. For example, a twin sister named Alex is twice as likely as a twin sister named Isabella to take math or science at a higher level. The researchers speculated that this effect may be due to expectations. Teachers and parents are more likely to expect an Alex to excel at math than an Isabella due to negative (and untrue) stereotypes about the math performance of girls. A name may also influence an individual’s self-concept– making an Alex believe she is better at math than her sister Isabella. It is important to note that girls with more feminine names do not actually show worse performance in science and math— they are just less likely to pursue more difficult math and science courses. According to this research, some of the most feminine names include Kayla, Isabella, and Anna, while some of the most gender neutral names include Taylor, Madison, and Alex.

Research also finds that girls with more masculine names are more likely to be successful in a legal career (a traditionally male-dominated career).  One study which tested this effect (referred to as  the “Portia Effect '') found that females with more masculine names were more likely to achieve leadership positions such as judgeships. The researchers speculated that these results may reflect gender bias.

On the other hand, research finds that boys with more gender neutral names (such as Taylor, Jamie, Shannon) tend to show more behavioral problems in school and score lower on academic tests. This particularly occurs as boys get older and upon entry to middle school (fifth and sixth grade). This trend may reflect the different expectations that teachers have for boys with more gender neutral names and that gender neutral names for boys are less accepted by society than gender neutral names for girls.

Should you choose a name that is easier to pronounce?

Research finds that people tend to like other people more and form more positive first impressions of people with easier to pronounce names. People with easier to pronounce names also tend to be higher on the corporate ladder.  For example, lawyers with more easily pronounceable names occupied superior positions within their firm hierarchy. This effect seems to occur regardless of the nationality associated with the name, the name length, or how common the name is. In summary, the tendency for people to prefer easier to pronounce names may result in preferential treatment in the classroom and in the workplace. 

Another study also found that children with names that are spelled in an unusual way or that have punctuation (such as Da’Quan) also tend to score lower on math and science tests than other children. This may be related to teachers’ expectations or associations of the name with a particular race or socioeconomic classes.

Does the name remind you of any particular career or location?

Research also suggests that parents may want to consider whether the name resembles a particular career or location. Research finds that people often choose careers that resemble their names (for example, someone named Denise or Dennis is more likely to become a dentist and someone named Lauren or Larry is more likely to become a lawyer). 

People are also more likely to move to a place that resembles their name. For example, women named Georgia or Virginia are more likely to move to these states. Even though it is more of a stretch, women named Florence are more likely to move to Florida and women named Louise are more likely to move to Louisiana. This trend is because of something that psychologists call “implicit egoism” meaning we are unconsciously more attracted to something that reminds us of ourselves.

How do you avoid choosing a name that will become too popular?

In choosing a baby name, research finds that parents strive both to be unique and “fit in” with the crowd. They try to choose names that will help their child to stand out yet also will seem somewhat familiar. Accordingly, they often choose a slightly different version of a popular name from previous years. The most popular names then tend to decline in popularity over time as parents strive to find names that are more unique.

This desire for a unique name has also seemed to increase over time. For example, the most popular name in 1900 for girls (“Mary”) was given to 4% of babies born that year, while the most popular name in 2000  for girls (“Emily”) was given to less than 1% of babies that year.

Specifically, research finds that parents tend to choose names with similar sounds or phonemes as very popular names in the past in order to be unique without being “too unique”. For example, Jennifer was very popular in the 1980’s and then as Jennifer waned in popularity, the name Jessica increased in popularity. A similar pattern occurred with Emily which was replaced with Emma.

Here is an example from more recent years. The number one girl’s name in the United States in 2021 was Olivia. Other names in the top 10 of 2021 include Sophia, Mia, and Amelia, which all have the same ending sound. From 2020 to 2021, the names Thalia, Elia, and Analia also showed growth in popularity. Thalia jumped from #807 to #726, Elia jumped from #1108 to #878, and Analia jumped from #675 to #535 .

The number one boy’s name in the United States in 2021 was Liam. From 2020 to 2021, the names Eliam and Leon showed increases in popularity. Eliam jumped from #1178 to #736 and Leon jumped from #196 to #177.

The name Evelyn is also in the top 10 baby names of 2021. Accordingly, the names Emberlynn, Oaklynn, Jazlyn, Addilyn, Rosalyn, and Madilyn increased in popularity from 2020 to 2021.

At some point though, a particular phoneme becomes so overused that it starts to decrease in popularity. This suggests that eventually we should expect names ending in -ia or -lyn to decrease in popularity.

In summary, a name becomes increasingly popular if similar-sounding names were more popular in previous years. As the name becomes increasingly popular, parents are more likely to choose a variant of that name, and over time, the name variants become more popular.

Research also finds that external events may increase the popularity of certain sounds in names. When a phoneme is heard more often, it is more likely that names will increase in popularity. For example, one study found that baby names are more likely to resemble recent hurricanes. This is particularly true for hurricanes that received a lot of media attention. For example, after Hurricane Katrina, names that begin with K increased in use by 9%!

Overall Translation

Choosing your baby’s name is a personal and difficult decision. However, if you need some guidance, research suggests you may want to consider whether the name is gender neutral, how easy the name is to pronounce, whether the name sounds like any particular occupation or location you would want your child to avoid, and the potential for the name to grow in popularity.

In choosing the name for our fourth baby, I knew that I wanted to choose a meaningful family name. However, the family name that we chose “Louise” (after my great grandmother) seemed too formal for a baby. So I suggested calling the baby “Lucy,” which isn’t even a nickname for Louise but who cares, right? My kids instantly gravitated toward this name and have called her Lucy throughout the pregnancy. Lucy is definitely not gender neutral, may mean she will move away to Louisiana, and seems to be growing in popularity, but we love it so the research doesn’t matter here— and it shouldn’t to you if you find a name that you really love!

Expert Reviewer

All Parenting Translator newsletters are reviewed by experts in the topic to make sure that they are as helpful and as accurate for parents as possible. Today’s newsletter was reviewed by Rebecca Berlin, PhD.  Dr. Berlin received her PhD from the University of Virginia School of Education and has served as a special education teacher, home visitor, child assessor, autism specialist and school administrator.  She has conducted research on the teacher-child interactions, as well as play and story based interventions for improving social skills and classroom quality. She currently serves as the Executive Director for the Parenting Translator Foundation. 

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Welcome to the Parenting Translator newsletter! I am Dr. Cara Goodwin, a licensed psychologist with a PhD in child psychology and mother to three children (currently an almost 3-year-old, 5-year-old, and 7-year-old). I specialize in taking all of the research that is out there related to parenting and child development and turning it into information that is accurate, relevant, and useful for parents! I recently turned these efforts into a non-profit organization since I believe that all parents deserve access to unbiased and free information. This means that I am only here to help YOU as a parent so please send along any feedback, topic suggestions, or questions that you have! You can also find me on Instagram @parentingtranslator, on TikTok @parentingtranslator, and my website (www.parentingtranslator.com).

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