人名大調查 "傑克""露西"最幸運

What's in a name? William Shakespeare asked in his love tragedy Romeo and Juliet.

Success, luck and attractiveness, a survey by an English psychology professor suggests more than 400 years later.

People called James or Elizabeth are perceived as likely to be the most successful, while Ryan and Sophie are seen as the most attractive, according to a poll by phychologist Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire.

Jack and Lucy are seen as the luckiest, according to a poll based on asking more than 6,000 people for their perceptions of different names.

At the other end of the scale, Lisa and Brian were seen as the least successful, Helen and John as the least lucky, and Ann and George as the most unattractive.

"Past research has shown that such perceptions can become self-fulfilling prophecies, with teachers giving higher marks to children with attractive names and employers being more likely to promote those who sound successful," said the authors of the poll.

"Attractive female names tended to be soft-sounding and end with the 'ee' sound, whereas the sexiest male names are short and much harder sounding,"Wiseman said.

What about his own name? He said he was pleased that Richard rated high among given names, while with the surname Wiseman "I think I was destined to be an academic."

威廉·莎士比亞在他的愛情悲劇《羅密歐與茱麗葉》中問道：一個名字裏究竟蘊藏着什麼祕密？

四百多年後，一名英國心理學教授開展的一項調查爲他找到了答案：名字與成功、運氣和吸引力有關。

赫特福郡大學的心理學家理查德•懷斯曼開展的一項民調顯示，名叫“詹姆斯”和“伊麗莎白”的人被認爲最易獲得成功，“賴恩”和“索菲婭”最具吸引力。

該民調共對六千多人對不同名字的看法進行了訪問。調查結果顯示，“傑克”和“露西”被認爲是最幸運的名字。

此外，調查對象認爲，名爲“麗莎”和“布萊恩”的人最不易獲得成功，“海倫”和“約翰”運氣最差，“安”和“喬治”最缺乏吸引力。

調查人員稱：“此前有研究顯示，人們對名字的這種直覺看法有一定的預示力量。老師們傾向於給名字好聽的學生打高分；公司老闆可能更願意提拔名字聽起來有‘成功’意味的員工。”

懷斯曼說：“有吸引力的女名發音往往較輕柔，多以‘ee’音結尾；而性感的男性名字的音節往往較短、發音硬朗。”

那麼懷斯曼自己的名字呢？他說他很高興“理查德”排在前面，至於他的姓“懷斯曼”，他說“我想我這輩子註定了要搞學術研究。”