The 'naughtiest' names revealed - study

Research reveals that Ella and Joseph are the most common names of poorly-behaved children. Photo / 123RF

It has long been claimed that names can influence your chances of doing well in life and now it seems that monikers can impact on behaviour at school as well.

According to a study, children named Jacob, Daniel, Amy and Emma are the most likely to display impeccable behaviour while those named Ella, William, Olivia and Joshua are most often to be found on the naughty step.

The findings come from a 2014 survey that looked at the names of more than 63,000 school children who logged good behaviour or achievement awards in online sticker books.

Those with the most good behaviour awards were named Jacob and Amy, closely followed by Georgia and Daniel.

By contrast, girls named Ella and Bethany and boys named Joseph and Cameron proved to be the naughtiest.

Other naughty names for boys included William, Jake, Joshua and Jamie while recalcitrant girls were also called Eleanor, Olivia, Laura and Holly.

Well-behaved names included Emma, Grace, Charlotte and Sophie for girls and Thomas, James, Adam and Harry for boys.

Baby names - and their impact on life chances - have been studied for more than 70 years, with the earliest studies finding that men with unusual first names were more likely to drop out of school.

More recent studies have found more correlation between names and social backgrounds, with the parenting skills of mothers and fathers having a more critical impact on future development.

Gregory Clark, the economist behind The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of Social Mobility, found that girls named Eleanor were 100 times more likely to go to Oxford University than girls named Jade.

Although there are proportionally more Jades in the general population than Eleanors, the former was rarely seen at top universities, while the latter was relatively common.

Other common names for Oxford students included Peter, Anna, Elizabeth, Richard and John, while among rarely seen monikers were Stacey, Connor, Bradley, Kayleigh, Shannon and Shane.

The latest round of research into names was commissioned by School Stickers, which creates online stickers for teachers to award to pupils.

Nicest girls' names:

Amy
Georgia
Emma
Charlotte
Grace
Sophie
Abigail
Hannah
Emily
Alice

Naughtiest girls' names:

Ella
Bethany
Eleanor
Olivia
Laura
Holly
Courtney
Amber
Caitlin
Jade

Nicest boys' names:

Jacob
Daniel
Thomas
James
Adam
Harry
Samuel
Jack
Oliver
Ryan

Naughtiest boys' names:

Joseph
Cameron
William
Jake
Joshua
Jamie
Lewis
Benjamin
Ethan
Luke

Most popular names

Noah was the most popular baby name for boys in the United States in 2013, knocking Jacob off the top spot after an epic 14-year run. Sophia was the most popular baby name for girls for the third straight year.

This story is a republished version of a 2014 article.