Latest WTF Study: Your First Name Affects Your Love Life

You obsess over finding the perfect online-dating photo, spend hours proofreading your “about me” section, and rack your brain trying to come up with screen name that (1) is the perfect mix of smart, sexy, and fun and (2) isn’t already taken.

But according to new research published in Evidence Based Medicine, choosing a screen name that starts with a letter from the first half of the alphabet might be just as important.

Wanting to come up with a scientific approach to online dating, two researchers (one from London and the other from Texas) combed through 86 studies on online dating. And among other tidbits—like responding too quickly makes you look desperate, guys like screen names that highlight your physical attractiveness, and, yes, you can post too many selfies—they found that having a screen name that starts with a letter from the latter half of the alphabet (N through Z) seriously hurts your chances of finding love online.

For one, that’s because dating sites typically list their search results in alphabetical order, says lead author Khalid S. Khan, associate editor of Evidence Based Medicine. The later your name appears in the alphabet, the more profiles other singles will scroll through before they get to yours (if they get there at all).

And while it’s not news that online dating is a numbers game, this sure is: Online daters subconsciously rank later-in-the-alphabet profiles as being less attractive than those that come later.

“There is something in human nature that draws us to those at the top of any listing and this phenomenon, though not fully explained, has an impact on online dating,” Khan says. “Perhaps we give higher value to things that appear to be at the top of the pile.”

So strong is our preference for the first half of the alphabet that people with names from that half tend to enjoy greater success—be it in terms of education or income, says Khan.

For instance, in one study published in Economics of Education Review, researchers found that the earlier in the alphabet a student’s name comes, the more likely they are to make it into competitive schools. Meanwhile, one Georgetown study even found that people with late-in-the-alphabet names are more likely to be impulse shoppers. Researchers believe it’s because they spent their childhoods at the back of the line, they compensate by jumping fast at opportunities—even if they maybe shouldn’t take them. The name effect even influences what companies thrive, Khan says.

“This does not mean that things [like dating profiles] lower down in the alphabet don’t have a chance, they just have to do something to overcome the odds,” he says.

Or you could just make the odds work in your favor. Choose a screen name that starts with a letter in the first half of the alphabet, suggests Khan. If you can come up with one in the ABC range, even better.