Can shortening your name make you “more attractive”?

Both men and women who use a shortened or diminutive version of their first name attract more online approaches than those with a full-length version of the same name, reveals the study by Badoo.com, a site for flirting, dating and chatting, with over 190 million users across 180 countries.

“Your name says a huge amount about you”, says Jo Hemmings, a behavioural psychologist and dating coach (full name: Joanna).  “People with abbreviated names appear more approachable and friendlier; less intimidating. A diminutive name gives a sense of warmth and informality.”

So, actress Jennifer Aniston might be less known for being “unlucky in love” if she called herself Jenny, since women named Jenny, reveals Badoo, attract more male advances in both the U.S. and UK than those named Jennifer.

Likewise, tennis star Andy Murray might not have such a stunning girlfriend as he does in Kim Sears if he called himself “Andrew”, since guys named Andrew, says Badoo, win less female interest than those called Andy.

“Attractiveness online is not only about looks”, says Niccolo Formai, spokesperson for Badoo. “Even the length of your name, it seems, may also make a surprising difference.” 

Badoo compared the number of online messages received over a five-month period by those with shortened or diminutive names (like Jenny or Mike) and those with full-length equivalents (Jennifer, Michael), in eight countries: America, Canada, UK, Brazil, France, Spain, Italy and Germany.

It collected a total of 162 such pairs of names.

The shorter or diminutive name held more allure in 72% – nearly three-quarters – of such cases. No country showed the opposite bias, in favour of full-length names.

Men, suggests Badoo’s data, are roughly twice as likely as women to use abbreviated names, which might explain why women seem to enjoy a greater competitive advantage by doing so. The shorter name proved more alluring in 79% of the female pairs studied, compared to 69% of the male ones.

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”, wrote Shakespeare. “But then Shakespeare never crunched the data”, says Formai. So, the male name Tony or Toni attracted more female advances than did the name Anthony in the U.S. and Canada, Antoine in France, Antonio in Spain and either Antonio or Antonino in Italy.

Britain’s David Cameron – and David Beckham – would, says Badoo, appeal to more British women as “Dave”, while France’s Nicholas Sarkozy would win more female admirers as “Nico”. But whether this would win them more votes is another question. “With people in power, the opposite bias may apply”, says Jo Hemmings. “It’s easier to have respect for someone called David than Dave.”

Might this explain why a royal name like William – as in Britain’s Prince William – was among the minority of full-length names with more appeal than its diminutive? It trumped Bill in the U.S. and Billy in the UK.

The general preference for short names, particularly for men, can also be seen in romantic novels, whose square-jawed heroes typically have brief and often one-syllable names. 

So, if you scan the Mills and Boon romance novels which rank among the most popular on the website www.goodreads.com the list of their male heroes teems with names like Jake, Nick, Zack, Jack, Brad, Luke, Kent, Flint, Chay, Trey and Cal. A lone “Sebastian” looks conspicuously out of place.

In fact, the length of your name affects not only your allure but also your income, revealed another recent study, which found that the shorter your name the bigger your pay-check. It too studied matched pairs of shorter and longer versions of the same name – Steven and Steve, etc – and found that in all but one of 24 pairs, the owner of the shorter name earned more.

Badoo’s study, meanwhile, adds to past evidence of other kinds that names can influence who we find attractive.

Studies of marriage records, for example, reveal that who people marry is influenced by the sound of someone’s name. “People are slightly more likely to marry people whose names sound like their own, even if the similarity is just sharing a first initial”, writes psychologist, Jonathan Haidt in his book, “The Happiness Hypothesis”.

So, men named Dennis are more likely than others to marry women named Denise, while women named Louise are unusually drawn to men named Louis or even Laurence.

But then the Romans already knew this sort of thing. The Latin proverb, “Nomen est omen” means “Name is omen”. In short, your name signals your character and destiny.

If so, it seems that by shortening your name, you can change your destiny.

Badoo first identified the 100 “most attractive names” in each of eight countries. It did so by analyzing billions of interactions and ranking names of Badoo users by the number of messages per head they received over a five-month period.

It then assembled 162 matched pairs of names, comprising both a full-length name and a shortened or diminutive version of it: Jennifer and Jenny, Michael and Mike, etc. In 72% – nearly three-quarters – of such head-to-head comparisons, the full-length name proved less attractive.

So, men called Mike, Matt, Phil or Chris attracted more female approaches per head than those named respectively, Michael, Matthew, Philip or Christopher. Likewise, women called Mandy or Cathy attract more male advances than those called Amanda or Catherine.

Meanwhile, Badoo also analysed the effect of name-length on allure in a second, different way. As well as comparing matched pairs of full-length and shortened names, it also compared the average length of the 25 highest-ranking of the 100 “most attractive” names in eight countries with that of the 25 lowest-ranking ones.

This second method pointed to the same conclusion – shorter names tend to be more alluring.