The most beautiful baby names according to science
Linguistics experts have determined the most beautiful baby names using a scientific method.
The study, conducted by the University of Birmingham, used phonetics, which studies the sounds, patterns and structures of the human language and scored the names on how much emotion they evoked when saying out loud.
It found that the name Sophia topped the list of girls' names in the US and the UK, while Matthew and Zayn topped the list for boys in the respective countries.
While phonetics and linguistics can impact how technically beautiful a name is, there are other factors that come into play, such as cultural influences, gender and family history.
Dr Bodo Winter, who conducted the study, found that names beginning with the letter E were shown to more pleasing to the ears, with Ellie, Emily, Evelyn, Eva and Elena ranking in spots nine to thirteen.
Names derived from nature also made the cut, with Ivy, Lily, and Violet all placing in the top 25.
Matthew, which came in at number one, means 'gift of God' with Dr Winter saying it has many positive connotations associated with it when spoken aloud.
Julian, William, Isaiah and Leo completed the top five most beautiful sounding boys' names in the US.
The most beautiful sounding names in the US are:
1. Matthew / Sophia
2. Julian / Zoe
3. William / Everly
4. Isaiah / Sophie
5. Leo / Riley
6. Levi / Ivy
7. Joseph / Paisley
8. Theo / Willow
9. Isaac / Ellie
10. Samuel / Emily
The most beautiful sounding names in the UK are:
1. Zayn / Sophia
2. Jesse / Zoe
3. Charlie / Rosie
4. Louis / Sophie
5. William / Ivy
6. Freddie / Phoebe
7. George / Violet
8. Ali / Willow
9. Daniel / Hannah
10. Riley / Ellie
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