Choosing an online dating profile name

They published their findings this week in the journal Evidence Based Medicine.Before we get to the findings, some caveats: these are generalities. And maybe these tips will land you more first dates, but it’s unclear whether these are the kinds of first dates you want.

So how do you create the kind of online identity that will land you a first date?

Trying too hard to perfectly sum yourself up is a common pitfall. Generally you should avoid anything with numbers, or super descriptive words (Ski Girl Seattle is very boring, even if it’s easy to come up with—and it only conveys information we’d be able to find in other areas of her profile).

It’s also best not to just recycle whatever old school internet handle has been your Twitter username and forum login info for years—stuff we created c.

DO: BE THOUGHTFUL ABOUT YOUR USERNAME People gloss over this one too often, and maybe it’s because we’re in a time when people tend to use their real names, or variations thereof, in many of their online interactions. Remember back to when picking your AIM username was a serious task?

It was your identity, your marker, and you’d better be happy with picking “DMX123” because you could be stuck with it for years.