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Left-Handers Day: Surprising Facts About Being Left-Handed

Written By: Catherine Boeckmann Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

International Left-Handers Day is August 13, a day celebrating the 10 to 12 percent of people worldwide who favor their left hand. Discover surprising left-handed facts, history, and folklore—from old superstitions to the science behind handedness.

Years ago, some teachers insisted that all students, including left-handers, learn to write with their right hand. Teachers thought that students would have an easier time if they were not “different” from right-handed writers. Some thought that using the left hand was just a bad habit. Some even slapped or punished left-handed kids who had trouble!

left-hander facts

Now we know that everyone should use whichever hand is most comfortable. Today, 10 to 12 percent of the world’s population is left-handed. It’s not surprising that lefties sometimes feel “left out.” Plenty of superstitions and odd terms regarding left-handedness exist.

Left-Hander Superstitions and Terms

  • Sinistrophobia is the fear of left-handedness or things on the left side.
  • Many people believe that the devil is left-handed.
  • The Latin word for left, sinister, also means unlucky, evil, and suspicious.
  • The French word for left, gauche, also means clumsy.
  • A left-handed compliment is an insult.
  • It is believed that all polar bears are left-handed.
  • A left-handed baseball pitcher is called a southpaw. (And no, there’s no such thing as a northpaw!)

Why Are Some People Left-handed and Others Right-handed?

Scientists aren’t sure what causes left-handedness. Genetics plays a role, but it’s not the whole story. For example, identical twins have the same DNA, but it is common for one twin to be right-handed and the other to be left-handed.

Many left-handers have a symmetrical brain, meaning that the left and right portions of their brain are shaped alike. Right-handers often have an asymmetrical brain: The left cerebral hemisphere is often larger than the right cerebral hemisphere.

pinky promise left hand facts

No matter the shape of your brain or the hand you favor, here’s what we have—um—left:

Left-handed Facts and Trivia

The Left Test

There’s no sure way to measure “handedness.” One of the most widely used tests is called the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (developed in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the 1970s). This test asks participants which hand they most often use for a series of activities, including writing, eating, drawing, throwing, cutting with scissors, brushing teeth, and unscrewing a lid.

Left-handed Burgers? Baloney!

A full-page ad in USA Today in 1998 claimed that Burger King had developed the “left-handed Whopper.” The burger had the same fixings, but they were turned 180 degrees so that they wouldn’t drip out on left-handed customers. It was a joke! The ad ran on April 1 (April Fools’ Day).

Lefties Day

August 13 is International Left-Handers Day! The tradition was started by the Left-Handers Club, a group in the United Kingdom. Club members around the world give interviews and play left-handed games.

left handed facts folklore

Left-hander Heaven?

Lefties might want to travel to Left Hand, West Virginia, where there is a church, a school, and a post office. The village was so named because it sits on the left-hand fork of the Big Sandy River, not because of the way its citizens write.

Left-handed Reward

A few left-handers attending Juniata College in Pennsylvania have benefited from a scholarship just for left-handers established in 1979 by Mary and Frederick Beckley, two left-handers who met when they attended tennis class together in 1919.

If you’re right-handed, try writing with your left. If you’re left-handed, try brushing your teeth with your right. You’re likely to find these activities surprisingly difficult.

So, tell us below if you are a lefty or righty and what you’ve observed about this phenomenon called handedness!

Amusements

About The Author

Catherine Boeckmann

Catherine Boeckmann

Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Catherine Boeckmann is the Executive Digital Editor of Almanac.com, the digital home of The Old Farmer’s Almanac. She leads digital editorial strategy and publishing across a wide range of Almanac sub...

Read more from Catherine Boeckmann

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Comments

<span>Carolynne</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 15:24
I am a lefty-righty. I use either hand for most tasks like using tools, blow drying and brushing my hair, eating, cooking, garnering, tennis, etc. I write or draw on paper with my left, but use my right on a blackboard. I use my right hand to move a computer mouse because it is too much trouble to move the mouse to the right side. My father and grandfather were lefties. My mother and brother are righties. My niece is left-handed. I remember my father saying back in the 1930s his teachers made him use his right hand to write with, but he played sports with his left. As best as I remember, none of my teachers in the 1950s and 1960s tried to get me to change. Also, it is easy for me to read documents upside down. Don't know if this ability is easier for lefties, but it came in handy quite a few times during my business career.
<span>Doris Stanford</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 13:37
I'm right-handed and do most things requiring dexterity with my right hand. But things that need strength rather than dexterity (like unscrewing a jar lid), I do with my left. Don't ask me why. My husband is a lefty who was forced to write with his right hand when he was growing up. He eats with either hand; everything else is done with his left. (Incidentally, of the four guys whom I dated seriously before I married my husband, three of them were left-handed. And the only righty of the bunch was the only one I should never have dated.) I have a pair of friends who are fraternal twins. Both parents of the girls were lefties; both girls are right-handed. If left-handedness is purely a recessive trait, both girls should have been lefties, right??? One last comment: Nothing was mentioned in this article about the possible connection of left-handedness with ADHD. An outsized number of people with ADHD are left-handed.
<span>Dena</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 13:26
I'm left-handed but when I was in first grade my teacher would tape my paper onto my desk in an attempt to write with my right hand. I would tear it up in defiance and turn it the other way so I could use my left hand. While working on the engineering field, I noticed that many of the engineers and designers seated at a meeting were left-handed, with the right-handed attendees in the minority.
<span>Rockaria</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 12:36
I'm right handed, but after I had surgery on my right rotator cuff, I learned to do a lot of things with my left hand. Even years after healing from that surgery, I'm still a left mouser (computer mouse).
<span>Eileen</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 12:32
I'm left-handed and use that hand to eat, brush my teeth, write and do most things except I use my right hand for scissors and knives. I can sew with either hand. My two daughters are right-handed and I don't know of anyone in our family who is or was left-handed.
<span>Marci</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 11:05
I'm right-handed but can write and draw almost as well with my left hand. An assignment in a college class on child development many years ago had us all try to do a self-portrait with a pencil held in our toes. I was able to draw a fairly recognizable picture of myself, to my own surprise. (Assignment was to teach us the frustration level of being a two-year-old.) One of my four older brothers should have been left-handed but was forced into right-handedness. He is ambidextrous.
<span>Keith D Thompson Jr</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 11:02
I couldn't write with my left hand for the life of me, but I brush my teeth, shave, and eat with my left hand. I believe I started at a school where lefties were forced to write with their right hand. I have a fully left-handed daughter.
<span>Barb Kamlah</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 10:53
I am left-handed and was never pushed to change by teachers or my parents. I write and eat left handed but use scissors and can use most tools with either hand. My husband is also left-handed, but cannot use tools with his right hand. We recently bought one of those mini, rechargable chainsaws for pruning in the garden. He finds it difficult to use because there is a button you can not push with your left hand. Unfortunately many tools are designed this way. I am able to use it equally well with my right hand so lucky me, I guess it's mine now. LOL
<span>Jd</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 10:37
I’m a Lefty. When I was young in school desks had a projection on the right side to place paper and write or print. When we ha a test, I always had to shift my paper way to the left to write. I was accused of letting students copy my answers!,They finally found a left handed desk and put me near a wall alone!
<span>Larry Schneider</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 10:12
My grandmother on my mothers side, a cousin on that side and me are or were all left handed, I use both and we all have/had red hair. I think that combination is less than 2% of the world population.