Whether people find you “hot or not” could depend on the sound of your name, suggests a new study.

Linguist Amy Perfors of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, US, placed photos with fake names on a website called “Hot or Not”, which allows viewers to rank strangers’ photos for attractiveness.

She found that men labelled with names including “front vowels,” such as the “aaa” sound in Matt were rated as more attractive by website viewers than photos labelled with “back vowel” names, such as the “aw” sound in Paul. The opposite was true for women’s names.

But having too feminine a name could backfire for men – as those labelled with women’s names were rated least attractive. However, having a man’s name – such as Bob – had no negative effect on a woman’s attractiveness to website viewers.

An attractive person with a bad vowel name is still more attractive than an unattractive person with a good vowel name.