Have you ever wondered what your name tastes like?
An author with the condition synaesthaesia, which she says makes her sense words, faced thousands of requests on Twitter from people desperate to know.
Ross, who apparently tastes of a Greggs sausage roll, can count himself luckier than Donald, who produced the effect of a rubber duck dipped in vinegar.
While Jesus tastes like a Malteser, others produce sensations or images rather than tastes – the name Paddy reminds her of a fat, squishy notepad with damp pages.
Julie McDowall, an author and journalist from Glasgow, received more than 15,000 replies to a tweet encouraging people to ask her what senses their names trigger
Julie McDowall, a freelance journalist and writer, tweeted on Sunday: ‘I have synesthesia which means I can “taste” words. Ask me what your name tastes like.’
She has since had more than 15,000 replies, among them people curious to know how she senses their name.
As well as tastes, many names conjure up images and feelings for Ms McDowall, from Glasgow, whose condition is a well-documented phenomenon.
Scientists believe synesthaesia is triggered by crossed wires in the brain – extra neural connections – with areas designed to process signals from one sense also being connected to another.
This means senses – vision, hearing, feelings, smells and tastes – get mixed up.
Ms McDowall, who says she can taste or somehow sense words, claims the name Jesus tastes to her like a Malteser chocolate
Paddy Patterson may have been disappointed to find out his name reminded Ms McDowall of a ‘fat squishy notepad’ with damp pages
Donald tastes like a rubber duck sliced in half and dipped in vinegar, according to Ms McDowall
Ms McDowall has synaesthesia, meaning there is crossover between her senses – the condition is a well-documented medical phenomenon thought to affect one in 5,000 people. She claims the name Charlotte tastes like a raspberry-flavoured lollipop from the 1980s
Anybody named Duncan might be best off avoiding the author – the name produces the taste of ‘a burp after eating smoky bacon crisps’, she said
Ms McDowall said Catherine tastes like a rusk dipped in chocolate and coffee, while Katie is a ‘sensible cake, like Madeira’.
‘Keith is minty chewing gum’, she added, Duncan is ‘a burp after eating smoky bacon crisps’, and Hannah is ‘a gray tasteless banana’.
Danielle reminds Ms McDowall of spaghetti hoops, she claimed, Amelia is muesli, Graham is cold stew, Austin a ‘cold and slightly flattened sausage roll’ and Sabine tastes like soap.
Other people conjured sensations or images for Ms McDowall, who revealed her sister also has the condition.
Ian and Darren produce the feeling of an earache, she said, while Dominique ‘gives the smooth feel of a domino… accompanied by the smell of disinfectant’.
Joe is a ‘leathery chunky button on an old man’s cardigan,’ and Colleen could be ‘a little wooden puppet’s legs’.
The name of Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative MP from Somerset, reminds Ms McDowall of a dry cream cracker, tinsel and ‘sodden cats’, she said.
Ms McDowall said her own name corresponds to the image of a ‘watery eyeball’, while Jack is ‘very specific. It’s an old leathery footstool my Gran used to have.’
After becoming overwhelmed by people asking her to describe their names, Ms McDowall has stopped doing it on Twitter.
She is now offering to do three names for someone in return for a donation to her podcast.
And yesterday morning she appeared on BBC Radio 1’s breakfast show, when she told DJ Greg James his name was ‘tasted shortbread with the sugar dusted off’.