How it works
This is the pencil-and-paper love game generations played in class, moved onto a screen. Type two names and you instantly get two classic results: the FLAMES verdict โ Friends, Love, Affection, Marriage, Enemies, or Siblings โ and a love percentage from the traditional letter-counting game. The full working is shown below the result, exactly the way you'd scribble it on paper, and you can share the outcome as a picture card or a link. One thing to say up front: none of this has any scientific basis. It's a game about letters in names, nothing more โ enjoy whatever it says.
The FLAMES method
FLAMES is a well-known folk paper game (see the "FLAMES (game)" article on Wikipedia). The rules this calculator follows are the common ones:
- Write both names and cross out the letters they share, one-for-one โ each letter in one name cancels at most one matching letter in the other. Spaces, apostrophes, and capitalization don't count.
- Count the letters left over in both names combined โ call it N.
- Spell F-L-A-M-E-S and count around the letters in a circle. Every time you reach N, cross that letter out and keep counting from the next one.
- The last letter standing is the verdict: Friends, Love, Affection, Marriage, Enemies, or Siblings.
Example โ Ashley and Brandon: they share one letter (a), leaving s-h-l-e-y and b-r-n-d-o-n โ 11 letters. Counting 11 around FLAMES eliminates E, then S, A, F, and L, leaving M โ Marriage. Since the shared letters and the leftover count don't depend on which name comes first, swapping the names gives the same verdict.
The love percentage method
The percentage comes from the equally classic "TRUE LOVE" counting game. Under both names you write the phrase T-R-U-E-L-O-V-E and count how many times each of those letters appears in the two names combined, giving a row of eight digits. Then you add neighboring digits pair by pair, keeping only the last digit of each sum (the playground rule that keeps every number a single digit), until just two digits remain โ read them together and that's your percentage.
Example โ John and Jane: T, R, U appear 0 times; E once; L zero; O once; V zero; E once โ 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1. Reducing the row step by step ends at 6 and 1: 61%. Schoolyards had many house rules for this game; this calculator always applies the same fixed rule, so the same two names always produce the same result โ no randomness anywhere.
Names and privacy
Everything is calculated in your browser; the names are never sent to or stored on a server. If you use the "Copy result link" button, the two names become part of the link address so the result can be reproduced โ anyone who receives the link can see the names, so use nicknames if you'd rather keep things private.
FAQ
How does the FLAMES game work?
Cross out the letters both names share (one-for-one), count what's left, then count that number around the letters F-L-A-M-E-S, removing one letter each round until one remains. That letter is the verdict โ Friends, Love, Affection, Marriage, Enemies, or Siblings.
Does the order of the names matter?
No. Both games only look at which letters the names contain, so "Ashley & Brandon" and "Brandon & Ashley" get exactly the same FLAMES verdict and the same percentage.
Is there any science behind this?
None whatsoever. FLAMES and love-percentage games are playground traditions โ fun with letters, with zero connection to real compatibility or relationships. If you got Enemies with your best friend, that's a laugh, not a prophecy.
Are the names I type stored anywhere?
No โ nothing is sent to a server. Just remember that a copied result link contains the two names in its address.