Inferring gender from name phonology.

Abstract

English male and female names have different phonological properties. This article examines 3 questions about this phenomenon: How informative is phonology about gender? Have English speakers learned this information? Does this knowledge affect name usage? Results from a connectionist model indicate that English phonology predicts name gender quite well. Experiments found that English speakers have learned these cues. For example, names were classified as male or female more quickly and accurately when they had phonologically typical properties. Further studies demonstrated that the evolution of names in this century was affected by how male or female they sounded and that knowledge of phonological cues to gender influences the perception and structure of brand names. Implications for stereotyping, individual differences, and language research are discussed.