What's in a name? Evaluations of literary names in context and in isolation

Abstract

Literary characters' names from classical and children's literature, judged as either positive or negative in context, were rated in isolation by 44 men and women raters. Consensus between contextual and isolated evaluations was found, depending upon the sex and affective meaning of the name in context, and the sex of the rater. In Study I, which used 132 names from classical, literature, female positive names received the highest degree of consensual response; and in Study II, which used 23 names from children's literature, consensual matches were made by women rather than men raters. These results were interpreted as due to a physiognomic response to the intrinsic structure of verbal material.