Finding the key to a good name for your little qwerty

Noah and Olivia have become popular.

We all use a "Qwerty" keyboard to send email and text messages - but now it seems the keys are also influencing the choice of baby names.

A United States study says the rise in popularity of the keyboard since 1990 has meant more babies' names containing letters on the right-hand keys, such as Noah and Liam, or Emily and Olivia.

This is because keys on the right hand side are viewed as more positive, while the left is viewed as more negative, say University of Chicago researchers.

The study, reported by Popular Science, was led by by psychology professor Dr Daniel Casasanto.

He was following up his previous finding that words typed with the right side of the keyboard were generally viewed as more positive than words on the left side. This was because many people tend to associate "good" with their dominant side - and most people are right-handed.

However, it is a trend that's gone undetected by New Zealand baby name experts.

"I haven't heard that one" said Bay of Plenty post natal consultant Vicki Kirkland, who added most parents choose names from a book.

And Rochelle Gribble, of kiwifamilies.co.nz, was not convinced: "I think media and popular culture, people's friends and family names have more relevance that the Qwerty keyboard."