Perceived age, attractiveness and intelligence as a function of first names: word norms for first names in German

First names vary with respect to the perceived age as well as the perceived attractiveness and competence of,their bearer-at least as long as we know only little about the person concerned (see Kasof, 1993). This article pres ents a study assessing perceived age as well as perceived attractiveness an d intelligence of 80 male and female German forenames, In addition, it is s hown that perceived attractiveness and competence of forenames differ with the age of the respondents; therefore, young adults (18-30 years), older ad ults (older than jj years) and an intermediate age group (32-40 years) were included into the design of this study. The word norms presented for Germa n first names will allow to outbalance the effects of a first name's attrac tiveness in future research.