Voiced Obstruents in Foreign Player Names Show a Small Association with Hit-by-Pitch but Not Intentional Walks: Evidence from Japanese Professional Baseball

Abstract

This study examined, from the perspective of sound symbolism, whether the phonological properties of foreign player names in Japanese professional baseball are associated with hit-by-pitch (HBP) and intentional walks (IW). Data were collected from 682 foreign batters who played in Nippon Professional Baseball between 1952 and 2023. For each player, the number of morae and voiced obstruents (VOs) such as [b], [d], [g], and [z] in their katakana-registered names was recorded. Generalized linear models were used to analyze the associations between these phonological features and the counts of HBP and IW. Players whose names contained two VOs had a significantly higher HBP rate, whereas no significant effects were observed for morae or IW. These findings suggest that, in line with sound-symbolic effects, VOs in names are associated with a slight increase in HBP. More broadly, these findings raise the possibility that sound-symbolic properties of names may extend beyond impression formation and be reflected in actual performance-related outcomes, albeit weakly. However, the observed association was small in magnitude and is unlikely to be practically meaningful.