What Your Name Says About You

Your name, something you can't control or easily change, can have a powerful effect on how others view who you are as a person, including your character and lifestyle.

It can make you seem attractive, successful or lucky--or just the opposite. According to Richard Wiseman, a professor of psychology at Hertfordshire University in Great Britain, we subconsciously associate names with those of the rich and famous.

To test his theory, he asked 7,000 male and female volunteers to imagine they were about to meet a group of people. They were then given a list of 20 male and 20 female names and asked to identify those they thought were the most successful, the most attractive and the luckiest.

Women were far more judgmental in how they assessed others based on their name. "Women share strong opinions about names, whereas men are more even-handed," Wiseman explained to The Daily Mail.

What's in a name?

"Traditional names with royal associations are viewed as highly successful and intelligent, and so parents hoping for successful offspring might want to avoid more unusual names," Wiseman told The Daily Mail. "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.

Top 10 names that make one sound successful

Elizabeth, Caroline, Helen, Olivia, Amanda, Karen, Sarah, Rachel, Ann and Laura

James, Richard, Michael, William, Andrew, Mark, Robert, David, John and George

Top 10 names that make one sound attractive

Sophie, Rachel, Olivia, Karen, Katie, Sarah, Grace, Emily, Amanda and Heather

Ryan, James, Jack, Chris, Michael, Lewis, Andrew, Mark, David and Ian

Top 10 names that make one sound lucky

Lucy, Katie, Lisa, Sophie, Emma, Julie, Emily, Heather, Rachel and Grace

Jack, Chris, Ryan, Peter, James, Stephen, Michael, Lewis, David and Ian

Names that make one sound unsuccessful

Ryan and Brian for men and Lucy and Lisa for women.

Names that make one sound unlucky

Thomas and John for men and Elizabeth and Helen for women.

Names that make one sound unattractive

Thomas and George for men and Jane and Ann for women.