For daily wit & wisdom, get the Almanac newsletter.

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

More Like This

Comments

<span>Bridgette</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 09:58
I'm a righty. My husband, his sister & his brother are all left-handed -- they are the only lefties in their family for many decades now! My mother was also left-handed and was raised in an Alaskan Children's Home where they did in fact punish her with smacks on the hand whenever she wrote with her left hand. To prove her independence, she developed her handwriting to slant to the right (when writing with her left, actually may have been self-preservation), and taught herself to be ambidextrous, write backwards and upside down, and upside down & backwards. :) Funny she became a stickler on neat penmanship, period. :) Thank you!
<span>Priscilla</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 09:29
I write and eat with my left hand but play sports with my right hand. I broke my left wrist so I had to eat and write with my right hand. It was not a problem since I taught myself how to use both hands at a young age so I am almost ambidextrous. I still prefer my left hand. (Smile)
<span>Matalie</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 09:22
I am fully left handed.
<span>Marilyn</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 09:02
I am a definite righty and I use to say ‘if I broke my right arm I would starve to death’ because I couldn’t hold a fork with my left hand! Well I jinxed myself. I had to have surgery on my right shoulder and could not move my right arm at all! It was a blessing, I have taught my left hand to do so many things! When I am doing construction projects around my home that comes in really handy either using power tools or a paintbrush!
<span>Dona</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 08:31
I am fully left handed and my brother writes lefty but did sports righty. Parents both rightys. We found out that my maternal grandmother was actually born lefty after she had a strike that affected her right side. It was the type of stroke, I forget the name now, that would affect the opposite side of your ‘handedness’. My mother only knew her as being right handed so it was a mystery… One of my great aunts was still alive and remembered that her sister had had her left hand tied behind her back as a child in school to force her to be right handed! It proved that we are hard wired to be one way and forcing the change did not change her brain!
<span>Kay Gee</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 08:13
I’m almost completely left handed, with the exception of playing softball. My dad was born in 1925 and was a total leftie, but was forced to write right handed due to repeated painful corrections in school. Neither of my daughters are lefties, but oddly open jar lids and use scissors as lefties, thanks to watching and learning from me as they grew up. I never think about doing things opposite of 90% of the population, but my husband is horrified whenever I use a knife 😳
<span>Treese H.</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 08:04
I’m left handed all the way! One exception it seems scissors are made for righties. So I use my right hand when I use them. When I was young and played sports like soft ball or field hockey it seem to confuse the other players.
<span>Anthony Proznick</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 07:53
I’m a lefty, the only one in my family. It’s always fun going to a restaurant with a group of people and situating myself strategically at the table so as to be able to eat and not bump into anyone else’s arms.
<span>Kenneth S.</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 07:52
I eat and write, paint artwork left handed. Everything else I do right handed, using tools, sports, etc. I’m not considered ambidextrous because that means you can use both hands equally. My wife is 100% left handed as is our first son.
<span>George Dehaven</span> Thu, 08/13/2026 - 07:14
I am left handed and don’t really have any difficulties. My dad tried to teach me to play golf right handed, but didn’t work and he bought me a set of lefty clubs. Interestingly enough, one of my sons is right handed, but bats lefty, plays lacrosse lefty and swings a golf club lefty. Everything else, including writing, holding a fork, etc. he does righty.