BeritaTREN.COM

With endless requests for glassware, crockery and household appliances the wedding gift list has almost become as predictable as the I Do’s.

But for those guests determined to purchase something the happy couple really wants, there could now be a fresh clue.

For the key to buying the perfect wedding present appears to be all in a name.

A comparison of thousands of high street gift lists has revealed startling trends among couples with the same surname.

Gordon and Sarah Brown on their wedding day in 2000. Couples with the surname Brown go for kitchenware, according to the study

For example, the Joneses flood their list with requests for glassware.

Boxes of 500ml wine glasses, 200ml flutes and 50cl beer glasses made up three of the 15 gifts most commonly chosen by the Joneses.

The Thompsons, on the other hand, preferring high-tech kitchenware and gadgetry, including the George Foreman grill and the Jamie Oliver balloon whisk.

Their most popular requested item, however, remains a muffin tin.

As for the Smiths they focus their taste on formal dining - knife sets accounted for four of the 15 most popular products on their weddings lists.

Other requested items included a salt and pepper mill gift set and placemats.

The extraordinary findings were revealed by department store John Lewis after they examined gift lists for the 10 names most frequently registered with its service.

They looked at the number of times different items were added to those lists and found astonishing parallels.

For couples with the surname Brown their gift lift was dominated by kitchenware.

The Evans’s, meanwhile, chose to concentrate on interior design with antique lamps and decorative accessories.

Among their 15 favourite presents was a loop candelabra.

The Thomas’s list featured a mixture of products for the kitchen, bedroom and lounge.

‘It’s really interesting to see how much your surname reveals about your specific tastes,’ said a spokesperson for the store.

‘John Lewis collected data from thousands of lists – no customers can be identified from this information.

‘Tableware is consistently a popular choice, but we are also seeing a resurgence in bakeware, suggesting that newlyweds are keen to revert to the 1950s trend of home cooking and baking.’

There are, however, a growing number of couples who have ditched the wedding list altogether and asked for donations towards their honeymoons.

Travel company Trailfinders now sets up between 300 and 400 wedding gift lists every month, compared with about 100 a month in 2005.

Many of those couples already lived together and had no need for the usual household items.

Polly Atkinson, lifestyle editor at Brides magazine, said it was not unusual these days for wedding guests to club together to buy high-value gifts instead of buying individual presents.

When the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were married earlier this year they set up a charitable gift fund.

However, the number of couples registering for an Oxfam wedding list has fallen from 635 in 2008 to only 336 last year. dailymail.co.uk