Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Nigels 'twice as likely to vote for Farage's Ukip'

Women called Samantha were among those least likely to vote Conservative

Sophie McIntyre
Sunday 12 April 2015 09:50 BST
Comments
United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage
United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage (Carl Court/Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Men called Nigel are twice as likely to support Nigel Farage’s UKIP party, compared with the rest of the population, new research suggests.

A YouGov poll assessing the voting intentions of 46,000 people found that the likelihood of someone supporting Nigel Farage went up from 16% to 31% if their name was Nigel, according to the Huffington Post.

Joe Twyman, YouGov's Head of Social and Political Research, said: “This is perhaps not surprising, but what was interesting was, if your name is Nigel you are almost twice as likely to vote UKIP compared to the national average.

"It is not actually that by giving somebody the name Nigel you bestow upon them certain views. Nigel tends to be a name for older men. You don't hear people saying 'we have named him Nigel'.

“It is an older man's name and older men tend to be more likely to vote Ukip.”

The research examined if a person's first name was a significant factor in determining how they were to vote.

“So for example, are Davids more likely to vote Conservative, are Edwards more likely to Labour and so forth,” Twyman added.

For each party, a different selection of names made the list.

Women called Charlotte, Fiona and Pauline were the most likely to vote Conservative, whereas those least likely to are Sharon, Samantha and Clare

Samantha Cameron supports her Conservative husband
Samantha Cameron supports her Conservative husband (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

(with Samantha Cameron being an obvious exception).

The strongest Labour supporters are named Michelle, June and Andy, whilst the Liberal democrat’s biggest backers are called Tim, Kathryn and Samantha.

Those most likely to vote UKIP are called Jill, Nigel and Terry.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in