Men called Rupert smell like ‘a beer burp’ and women called Gertrude taste like ‘when you swallow back your own sick’.

We don’t make the rules, so don’t come after us – this is just what Henry Gray smells and tastes when coming across those names.

People with his intriguing neurological condition experience phantom sensations when coming across words.

For the barman from Newcastle, this has been the case ever since he can remember.

Rupert, 23, discovered he has lexical-gustatory synaesthesia back in 2009 – after parents and teachers picked up on him commenting on the tastes of his classmate’s names.

‘I remember thinking, “how does no one else think that Maggy is like eggs”,’ he said as he recalled his childhood.

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For him, the name Boris Johnson feels like ‘squishing a hard-shelled beetle with your foot’.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn is a ‘soft bum-fluff hair on a young man’s chin and cheeks’.

And Harry Styles feels like ‘hair sticking up like telephone wires’. Henry also says Donald Trump is like a ‘deflating rubber duck’.

‘I’ve always associated words and names with tastes, smells and feelings – it’s all I’ve ever known,’ he said.

‘To me, Kate Middleton is vaguely like jaggedly cutting cloth with a knife in a church and I can hear it.

‘Cameron Diaz is like a sparkly disco ball slowly rotating and Jennifer Lawrence is like sniffing the inside of a shoe.

‘One of the worst names for me is Kirsty which is the faint smell of urine. I’m not sure I could be close friends with or date a Kirsty.

‘It’s hard but I do judge people based on their taste or smell with their name. It’s always strongest when I first hear a name or am introduced to someone, but I can normally tune it out in day-to-day life.’

When Henry started university, he moved in with a Duncan, a Kirsty and an Elijah, which he described as ‘some of the worst names’.

He said Ducan is like ‘a bird dipped in smoky bacon crisps’, Kirsty is ‘a urine smell’ and Elijah is like ‘liking an eyeball’.

Because of their unfortunate names, he could not form a friendship with them or live with, so he was forced to change halls.

‘Most of the time I quite like having synaesthesia and it doesn’t get in the way,’ Henry said.

‘I’m a bartender at a pub so whenever I look at people’s ID I get a strong sense of the taste and smell.

‘Sometimes it could be an image or feeling – like Leanne is a rose leaning on a window.

‘The name Francesca is one of my favourites and is silky warm chocolate coffee.’

Find out if your name has made Henry’s best or worst list

Top female names
Francesca – silky warm chocolate cappuccino
Safa – espresso-soaked sponge cake
Alice – sliced apples
Abby – orange Hubba Bubba
Hayley – faint soft music

Top male names
Mitchell – stretchy cheesy shell pasta
Theo – cotton ball in mouth
Oscar – citrus orange juice
Martin – smarties
Bailey – warm milk

Worst female names
Kirsty – faint urine smell
Mary – a pile of unwashed pink bed sheets faintly smelling of damp
Kate – the sensation of burning myself on ice, like falling over on an ice rink and scraping your skin on dry ice
Natalie – broken wooden splinters in my mouth
Gertrude – tastes like when you swallow back your own sick
Daisy – sickly sweet butter that’s been left out in the sun and it’s turned orange
Arabella – a long smelly sock
Danika – sharp segments of ready salted crisps lodged in my throat
Vicky – biting into shattered glass
Brittany – sensation of having my hair caught in something and pulled

Worst male names
Harrison – an itch on my body that I can’t scratch, it’s everywhere and nowhere. I don’t even like saying ‘Harrison’
Elijah – like licking an eyeball
Rupert – a beer burp
Brad – the sensation of rope burn
Dylan – a toilet seat
Braydon – provokes horse manure smeared on a wooden wall
Teddy – beige unwashed settee covers
Hafsah – running my fingers through an old person’s greasy thin hair
Ian. A horrible name! It’s like having a sticky, blocked ear, all gammy and waxy.
Warren – feels like heartburn

Celebrity names
Boris Johnson – squishing a hard-shelled beetle with a foot
Jeremy Corbyn – soft bum-fluff hair on a young man’s chin and cheeks
Donald Trump – a rubber duck flattened, letting out air as it deflates.
Kate Middleton – jaggedly cutting cloth with a knife in a church
Cameron Diaz – a sparkly disco ball slowly rotating
Timothee Chalamet – a warm bowl of sugary Sugar Puffs
Emma Watson – a tiny pebble dropping into a puddle and it ripples
Matthew McConaughey – choking on a really smoky cigarette
Jennifer Lawrence – sniffing inside of a shoe
Viola Davis – pouring scintillating water from one pretty glass vase into another
Harry Styles – hair sticking up like telephone wires
Philip Schofield – really smoky
Holly Willoughby – a hopping kangaroo
Kim Kardashian – quickly ruffling handkerchiefs around in a hand

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