What your name says about how generous you are

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Everybody knows who they need to drop hints to about presents before Christmas.

But now it might be merely their name that could blow their cover as a potential Scrooge.

According to a survey of 250,000 names by a gift website, how generous or otherwise someone is has been linked to their name.

The results, by gift site GettingPersonal.co.uk, showed that Rebecca, Karen and Julie were the most generous women.

Paul, David and Mark, meanwhile, were supposedly the names of the most generous men.

Least generous men's names included Adam, Lee, Ben, Steven, Robert and Simon.

Women who supposedly kept the pursestrings tight were Patricias, Dianes, Gillians, Janets and Kerrys.

These were all names of people who use the gift-purchasing website, with the survey described by its co-founder as "a bit of fun".

John Smith, co-founder of Getting Personal, said the site looked at how much people had spent and how many presents they bought.

"Obviously there are lots of generous Adams and Patricias in the UK. As we specialise in personalised gifts, we thought it would be interesting to see whether there was any link between people's names and their gift giving habits."

The top and bottom 10 names for men and women are here:

Most generous men:

Paul, David, Mark, Andrew, Chris, John, Michael, James, Richard and Daniel.

Most generous women:

Rebecca, Karen, Julie, Sarah, Jane, Nicola, Amanda, Katie, Charlotte and Emma.

Least generous men:

Adam, Lee, Ben, Steven, Martin, Ian, Matthew, Robert, Peter and Simon.

Least generous women:

Patricia, Diane, Gillian, Janet, Kerry, Heather, Anne, Hayley, Kim and Jackie.