Editorial

'Naughtiest' and 'nicest' child names

A name is more than just a form of identification. It is at the core of one’s existence and follows you throughout your life. It is for this reason that

  • PublishedNovember 1, 2019

A name is more than just a form of identification. It is at the core of one’s existence and follows you throughout your life. It is for this reason that naming is so important to parents. Deciding on your child’s identification is however quite the task. In many African cultures, ones name is believed to be linked to their traits. However since being introduced to western civilization, names are a bit more random. Names vary from those denoted from the Bible to made-up ones. Things might however becoming full circle. According to a recent study these are the ‘naughtiest’ and ‘nicest’ child names.

Tongue-in-cheek research

UK survey consultant company, Censuswide and name tag company ‘my name tag’ recently conducted a study. 1500 parents, children and teachers were asked to describe what names they felt best described well and badly behaved children. The ‘naughtiest’ and ‘nicest’ names for boys were Jack and Arthur respectively. For girls, Isla were believed to be the best-behaved while Mia were believed to be the worst behaved.

According to the companies involved, this was just for fun. Their interest was in how kids, adults and teachers reacted to names.

In a statement My Nametag’s managing director said, “It was interesting to discover that these stereotypes are formed at a young age”. “Children and adults make quick judgements about each other based on their first name alone”. “These beliefs can make the difficult task of naming a child even more challenging, but we hope that our research will help give expectant parents insight into society’s opinions”

Apart from the above mentioned names, there were others on the ‘naughtiest’ and ‘nicest’ list. For naughty boy names, Charlie, Oliver and George prominently featured. Naughty girl names include Isabella, Amelia and Sophia. On the other hand, best behaved boys include Oscar, Noah and Muhammad while girls include Grace and Emily.

Also Read:  Games galore! Nairobi joints with the best game nights

Written By