Search or browse
A recent US study found ‘The QWERTY Effect’ could be influencing your baby name choice.
The QWERTY Effect refers to the QWERTY keyboard that was invented in 1874. Since then, it’s thought that words containing letters from the right side of the QWERTY keyboard are more positive in meaning than words typed with more letters from the left. The ‘right side’ is everything to the right of T, G and B.
Now, according to a study out of the University of Chicago, it seems that baby names containing more letters from the right side of the keyboard are considered to be more favourable than those packed with left-side letters.
Psychologist Daniel Casasanto and his colleagues compared Social Security Administration data in America, looking for names that had been given to 100 children or more from 1960-2012. Next, they set out to find some patterns.
“We tested whether the first names that Americans give their children have changed over time, as QWERTY has become ubiquitous in people’s homes, and whether new names coined after the popularisation of QWERTY are spelt using more right-side letters … than names coined earlier.”
Pinpointing 1990 as the beginning of the Qwerty era, the researchers found some interesting results. Out of 38,746 names, the names that became more popular after 1990 have more letters on the right side of the keyboard than names given before 1990.
And that’s not all: names that were invented after 1990 also contain more letters from the right side of the keyboard.
Even though more names contain letters from the right side of the keyboard after 1990, Nameberry makes an interesting point about the research.
“However, the overall popularity of names beginning with vowels somewhat upsets the theory,” they write. “The steepest rise in popularity goes to names beginning with the letter A, which occupies the far left side of the keyboard, followed by E, also a left-side name.
“But the most newly-popular of those vowel-starting names may contain more letters in the middle from the right side of the keyboard, as in Amelia, say, or Emily.”
As always, the naming site has come through with some excellent inspiration for names containing right-side keyboard letters.
Read more:
22 ‘old man’ baby names to add to your list right now
Review baby products to earn Coles, Kmart and Target gift cards. It's so easy!
