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A French survey reveals how our names may affect our sex lives.
By maressa brown — Written on Jun 12, 2020
It's an age-old question: what's really in a name? If it were up to Shakespeare, "That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet" would be the answer.
But as it turns out, your moniker can mean a lot. Yes, in fact, our names can reveal so many things about us. They can even tell us why we may have a certain number of romantic partners.
At least, according to this research, they will.
Maybe you're curious as to how your "number" compares to others? Well, look no further than the last letter of your first name.
A 2010 survey explains why someone like Kate Middleton could be leading such a lucky, blissful life, especially in the romance department. And it all has to do with her name.
Although you may wonder what a common name like Kate could possibly offer to the world, when there are so many Kates out there, this research has found that it's not so much the commonality of a name as it is the letters of the name, specifically the last one.
These findings came after a French dating service called Smartdate decided to survey its users on their sexual activity.
Their research happened to find a lot of links between a woman's name and how many sexual partners she will tend to have throughout her life.
They found that women whose first names end in an "a" tend to have more than double the 4.4 sexual partners that an average woman has in her lifetime.
And which of these monikers are among the most libidinous of names? Well, women named Laura had the most, clocking in at an average of 9.7 partners, Tania came next with 9.6, and Lola rounded out the top three at 9.5 (no surprise there really).
By comparison, women who were named Therese averaged at only 1.1 partners (how angelic), while Francoise averaged 1.2 and Martine coming in third place at 1.3.
Some might scoff and say this was obviously a coincidence, because most French women using Smartdate have names that end in a vowel anyway. But, Smartdate acknowledged that, and instead, attributed the findings, to the fact that names ending in an "a" are considered to be more unconventional.
Traditionally, French names tend to always end in consonants, but names that end in an "a" are more rooted in culture. And France actually only somewhat recently started to give their children more unique names and veer away from non-traditional ones.
So if the same is said to be true stateside, then are Thereses, Lisas and Samanthas more likely to hook-up with more partners than the Elizabeths, Janes and Katies are?
One thing Smartdate's survey didn't acknowledge was this:
Their users are probably getting more action than the average femme anyway, because everyone is less inhibited behind their computer monitor, regardless of whether your name is Jessica or Margaret. Oui ou non?
Maressa Brown is a blogger who writes about beauty, food, sex, relationships, and body image.
Editor's Note: This article was originally posted in December 2010 and was updated with the latest information.