You Had Me At Your Username

You’ve chosen the best pictures from that vacation in Florida and poured your heart out about you do in your free time (polka dancing, anyone?). Your Match.com profile must be complete, right?

Not quite.

While pictures and descriptions are important, it's your username that can tell your potential love about you before he/she even sees your picture. Too general, and you won’t catch their attention; too specific, and you may have them thinking you have nothing in common. And this is before they’ve even read your profile!

So what’s a guy/gal to do? Luckily, I’ve compiled a Top 5 Do’s and Don’ts List to help you create the username that will help you stand out and get noticed for being you, only Haughty-er.  

Do make it genuine. “Lookin_for_tru_luv” may indeed be what you’re after, but isn’t that why most people are on the site? Think about what makes you different from everyone else, and try to incorporate that into your username.

Don’t create a random assortment of letters and numbers. JRC may be your initials, and 2004 may be the year your beloved Fluffy went on to the great litterbox in the sky, but I won’t know any of that by seeing that “JRC2004” winked at me.

Do get specific. “Teacher_gal” or “DogLover” might describe you perfectly, but they describe a lot of people perfectly. “Beer_Connisseur” or “Hiking&HighHeels” are more fun and would showcase your (awesome) personality.

Don’t just tell people what you think they want to hear. Getting a message from “GoodGuy1984” just tells me that he’s either been burned before, or is trying to up his “awwww” factor. Neither makes me want to hit “reply”. 

Do have fun with it. Instead of calling yourself “FunnyGirl80”, why not actually say something clever? (Like...I don't know...HaughtybyNature?) Don’t be afraid to take a risk and be yourself.

Remember, if your matches couldn’t see your picture, your username is their sole first impression of you.  What do you want that impression to be?

And P.S., for those of you who told me I was crazy for not liking the Facebook stalker? Well, Match.com's relationship expert Whitney Casey happens to agree with me. Watch it and weep. Then take back that time you called me lame for not appreciating a Friend request before the first date. (Rude.)