Children's Evaluative Stereotypes of Masculine, Feminine, and Androgynous First Names

This study examined children's evaluative stereotypes of masculine, feminine , and androgynous first names. Attractive and unattractive masculine, feminine, and androgynous first names were presented to 50 primary school children. The gender-typed names were attributed to the appropriate sex; the androgynous names were repeated and attributed to both sexes. Participants were required to evaluate the names using a series of 20 bipolar adjectives that were later summed to give an overall evaluation score. Results showed that evaluations we re significantly influenced by the gender typing of the names and the sex of the participants but not by the attractiveness of the name. The results are discussed in terms of existing research and theory.