Women With These 5 Names Have The Best Luck With Men, Survey Says
How your given name could be affecting your love life.
Are names really that important? In some cases, yes, they are. Your name gives you an identity. And some cultures put very careful thoughts into naming their children with sentimental meanings.
However, one place where you would not normally think that names would be that important is in the dating world. When it comes to finding a girlfriend or boyfriend, who would care about something like that, right? Why should your name have any kind of impact on your love life?
Sure, you may prefer a certain hair or eye color on a potential love interest, but their name? Well, contrary to what you may believe, your name does matter when it comes to dating.
And apparently, your name even also affects how much response you may get on dating sites. In 2016, the former dating app, The Grade decided to explore the impact of the name you choose to appear as when it comes to swiping right.
Women with these 5 names have the best luck with men:
1. Erika
2. Rebecca
3. Nikki
4. Jen
5. Sarah
Infograph / The Grade
Finding love on an online dating site might but seem hopeless, but you'd be surprised. According to the Pew Research Center, 1 in 10 adults met their partner on a dating app.
There is a major difference between showing up as a "Rob" or "Robert and as a "Jennifer" or "Jen." "We scoured The Grade's userbase to give you the most accurate statistics on the like-rate of nicknames versus given names," said the former dating app.
For some names, it's only one letter, but that one letter can make all the difference. For example, it turns out that "Erica" is only one letter away from receiving more right swipes than "Erika."
cottonbro studio / Pexels
And the same goes for "Sarah," who receives more right swipes than just, "Sara." Some nicknames also seem to fare better than actually given names, and the same seems to be particularly true with men's names. In the top five names for men, some given names get more right swipes than nicknames.
For example, "Michael" is more likely to get the right swipes than "Mike," but in the case of "David," going by "Dave" is the better option. A "Jonathan" should also stick to their full name, rather than their nickname, as well as "Matthew."
However, a "Richard" can get away with "Rick," but not with "Ricky." For women, the "Rebeccas" of the online dating world should avoid using their nickname "Becky," as their given name probably sounds more attractive to potential dates. And "Jennifer" is probably a mouthful for some, because "Jen" gets more right swipes.
In addition, the name "Nikki" sounds cuter than "Nicole." So, what do you think? Could your name possibly be affecting your chances of finding love? Is it time to change your name yet on the dating apps that you use?
Caithlin Pena is a multimedia reporter, editor, and journalist who covers news and relationship issues Her work has been featured on Today, NBC News, Huffington Post, Yahoo, and PsychCentral.