What sort of person is named Rupzoiyat? In 1916, a researcher at Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York, asked that very question – and conducted an experiment to find the answer.
The researcher, herself named G English, wanted to understand what she called “the nature of the psychological response to proper names of unknown persons”. This is a question Shakespeare made famous by stating it in a mere four-and-a-half words: What’s in a name?
In particular, G English wanted to test a theory proposed by a Swiss psychologist, Edouard Clapar?de…
So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian.