What's in a name?

Well a lot more than you would think if recent statistics are anything to go by.

If your name is Deborah or Peter then chances are you're a CEO.

Parents - if you'd like an athlete in the family then best to name your child Ryan, Matt or Jessica. Looking for someone in law enforcement? Simply call on a Billy, Troy or Rodney.

The statistics have been compiled by online professional networking site LinkedIn, who looked at more than 100 million profiles and correlated users' names with their occupations.

The analysis did turn up some rather more odd correlations, for example, male CEOs in the US are more likely to have four letter names such as Jack, Bill or Fred.

Similarly sales professionals are called shorter names like Chip or Todd while engineers and the names of people who work in restaurants are usually longer.

Female engineers are very likely to be named Kiran, while Thierry is the most prevalent name in restaurant and food services worldwide.

In comparison with male CEOs, females tend to use their whole name and they are usually longer names with two or three syllables like Sally Cynthia or Carolyn.

Study researcher Frank Nuessel, a professor of classical and modern languages at the University of Louisville, said of the findings to MSNBC: 'Typically hypocorisms, the shorter form of a given name, are used in intimate situations as a nickname or a term of endearment.

'It's possible that sales professionals in the U.S. and male CEOs around the world use these shortened versions of their name as a way to be more approachable and accessible to potential clients.'

(Read by Lee Hannon. Lee Hannon is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)