The most beautiful-sounding baby names, according to science

Every baby name is beautiful and special in its own way, but science now says that some names sound more beautiful than others.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Birmingham, found that a linguistic concept known as iconicity (or 'sound symbolism') means that some words evoke more emotion and sound better to the human ear than others. 

The linguistic experts teamed up with baby shop My 1st Years, to measure exactly which names conveyed the most positive emotions when said out loud.

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"We scored a number of the world's most popular baby names in order to rank them," explained lead researcher Dr Bodo Winter. "The names that ranked the most highly, provoked the most positive emotions when spoken out loud and therefore are likely to sound most beautiful to the human ear."

According to the list, in the UK, Zayn topped the list as the most beautiful-sounding boy's name.

The name has become popular after the success of British boy band One Direction's own Zayn Malik. Trailing closely behind Zayn were the boys' names Jesse and Charlie.

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The study also revealed that the names of male British royal family members are considered to be some of the most beautiful sounding in the world.

Louie, William and George all ranked in the top 10, in positions four, five and seven respectively. However, Harry narrowly missed the top 10, ranking in 17th spot.

As for girls Sophia, Zoe and Rosie topped the list of most beautiful sounding. Other names ending in the sound 'ee', including Sophie, Ivy and Phoebe ranked in positions four to six.

Celebrity kids' names also made the list of the most beautiful-sounding monikers for girls.

This included Ivy, possibly inspired by Beyonce's daughter Blue Ivy, and Willow which could potentially have been inspired by Will Smith's daughter Willow Smith.