A name can be a tremendous gift: The right one puts a positive spin on your child’s perceived attractiveness and popularity . This works when people know nothing about your child but her name: the mental image they have of a “Claire” or a “Sebastian” is very different from that produced by a “Mary” or “John.”

Even the simplest building blocks of a name are capable of generating an automatic response in the listener’s mind. For example, the vowel sounds in names influence the perception of the person’s attractiveness. Vowel sounds made in the front of the mouth  (see graphic) imply that a man is more attractive, while those that are sounded in the back of the mouth do not have that effect. Interestingly enough, the opposite is true for women.

There are more complex phenomena to consider, though. Social expectations and stereotypes, in particular, play an important role. To illustrate: In another experiment, elementary school teachers gave better grades to essays written by students with more desirbale names.