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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>Kelly Sexton</span> Wed, 08/13/2025 - 11:35
I'm left handed. Three of my kids are also left handed. We've always had problems handling knives for tasks like peeling potatoes. Lol
<span>Dona</span> Wed, 08/13/2025 - 17:29
Most people don’t know that serrated/bread/tomato knives are sharpened on one side- that is- sharpened for right handed users. I always had a problem slicing bread,etc until I bought a lefty bread knife! Also, traditional Japanese carbon steel knives are also sharpened on one side depending on the user. At the fabulous Korin in NYC, when I had to replace a Japanese Chef’s knife that I had been given decades by my Chef, they asked if I was left or right handed so they could sharpen it properly. Finally some respect!!
<span>Marilyn</span> Wed, 08/13/2025 - 11:35
I write most comfortably with my left hand, but I can also write with my right hand. I taught 3rd grade for many years and taught kids that were left handed and kids that were right handed how to write in cursive. I could show either kid how to put their paper to write well and how to hold the pencil correctly. For every other task--cutting with scissors, eating, talking on the phone, throwing a ball--I use my right hand. My grandfather tried to make me write with my right hand but it really didn't stick. But maybe that's why I can write with either hand now.
<span>Ray</span> Wed, 08/13/2025 - 11:34
I guess I`m semi ambidextrous! I write, use a fork etc left handed. My right eye is my dominant eye so I bat, shoot a gun etc. right handed. I can hammer with which ever hand is most convenient!......soooo...????
<span>Kimberly S Scruggs</span> Wed, 08/13/2025 - 10:35
I’m left handed when eating and writing. However, I use my right hand to bowl, play pool (L or R ), shoot a rifle, hand gun (L or R), archery, fishing. 🌻
<span>John Enfield</span> Wed, 08/13/2025 - 10:11
I spent the first six years of my life dealing with people who thought I ought to be right handed. I was so clumsy that they thought maybe it was because I was trying to use my left hand to do things most of the time. I was so clumsy that I couldn't catch anything, for example, not even bounce a ball myself and catch it. Couldn't stack blocks, or pick things up on the first try even. But, when teachers tried to get me to line up numbers to add them together, they noticed that I couldn't do it unless I covered one eye or the other. Even then, I wasn't too sure what the numbers were unless someone read them aloud to me. So, my mom took me to an eye doctor. After running a lot of tests on me, he figured out that my problem wasn't that I was actually right handed, but trying to use my left hand. My real problem was that I was a left handed person who had binocular diplopia. He prescribed special glasses and a series of eye exercises that I had to do every day to try to strengthen the muscles that controlled my eyes. One of the tests he did on me revealed something that people had noticed about me before, but had never made any connections with vision problems about was that I was unable to cross my eyes. I could look at my nose with one eye or the other, but not with both at the same time. Even after doing the eye exercises for years, I still couldn't cross my eyes, but I eventually got to where I could control the double vision well enough to have some amount of depth perception and to line things up. With a lot of practice, I got to where I could dribble a basketball as long as I was only walking slowly and I could make free throws. I never got to where I could make a basket if someone was defending me though. I also practiced archery and eventually got to where I could hit the target sometimes. My only good sport was track because I had very good stamina from growing up on a ranch. I could run all of the distance races in one track meet with no problem. Today, I still have days when I struggle to see things singly, especially if I'm tired. I still do the eye exercises now and then. I'm still left handed and have gotten pretty dexterous at doing things with my left hand. I can hit a bullseye at twenty yards at least once or twice in a practice session now. I can also build things and build my own computers and also do handyman type things around the house, though I still use a pair of needle nose pliers to hold nails so I don't hit my fingers. In recent years, I've also found out that I have Social Anxiety Disorder and related conditions. No wonder I've always felt like I didn't belong anywhere.
<span>Bonnie Newman</span> Wed, 08/13/2025 - 08:22
I’m left handed and an artist. I notice that many power tool for yard work have switches and buttons for right handed people. Many things are like that and right handed people have no idea that we adjust how we do things in a right handed world. Even the adventure park rope and wood horizontal challenges are set up for right handed people. I often wonder if the world was changed for one day, how the righties would react!
<span>John Enfield</span> Wed, 08/13/2025 - 10:13
That would be very interesting indeed! I would certainly redesign almost everything if I could. Even the way doors open could be better for left-handers.
<span>Paula</span> Wed, 08/13/2025 - 08:17
I am celebrating my birthday today on Left-Handers’ Day…turning 74 and am left-handed! I am one of 8 children, 4 of which are left-handed. In 1st grade, an attempt was made to change me to write with my right hand. In conjunction with my teacher, my mother had me sit at the kitchen table with a small chalkboard making me write with my right hand. To this day, I write on paper with my left but on a vertical chalkboard better with my right. I am also very proficient with writing backwards perfectly for some reason, with my left…Happy Left-Handers’ Day and God bless you all, left or right🥰🙏
<span>Martina</span> Wed, 08/13/2025 - 09:40
Happy birthday Paula!🎂