Kim, Su-Han, Seongmin Mun and Eon-Suk Ko. 2022. Sound symbolism in the gender of personal names: With focus on the game characters in Animal Crossing. Studies in Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology 28.1. 33-55. Sound symbolism reflected in the segmental composition of personal names makes it possible for us to predict the gender associated with names. This study investigated the sound symbolism in the names of the Korean game characters in Animal Crossing. We compare the phonological features in the two genders of the game characters’ names by chi-square tests and t-tests. We then report what phonological features have effects on predicting the gender of game character names in Korean by fitting a logistic regression model. The results show that if a greater number of syllables, portion of sonorants or vowels exist in a name, the gender of the name is more likely to be female. If stops constitute a large portion of the name, the gender of a name is more likely to be male. Furthermore, the results of logistic regression analyses show that if a name ends in a sonorant or back vowel, the gender of the name can be predicted as male. If there is a greater portion of sonorants and vowels and the name starts with a fricative, the gender of the name can be predicted as female. (Chosun University, MA student; Postdoctoral Researcher; Associate Professor)

Keywords: gender, sound symbolism, naming, Korean phonology, animal crossing, logistic regression

[pdf]