50 Fun Facts About Left-Handedness

Which Old West outlaw was long thought left-handed because his famous ferrotype portrait showed him in reverse?

Billy the Kid wears his Colt on the left in the picture, but ferrotypes produce reversed images, and historians concluded in 1954 that he drew with his right.

Most Muppets are left-handed because the performer's right hand is busy operating which part?

The head is worked by the performer's right hand in a typical Muppet, leaving the left to move the arm, a design quirk that turns most of the cast into lefties.

Which left-handed Renaissance artist filled his notebooks with mirror-image script running right to left?

Leonardo da Vinci wrote most of his private notes in mirror-image cursive, switching to standard script only when he meant other people to read them.

Which Australian marsupials were found to favour the left hand for everyday tasks such as feeding and grooming?

Kangaroos surprised researchers, because marsupials lack the corpus callosum that links the two halves of the brain in placental mammals such as humans.

Which English word for evil or threatening comes from the Latin for 'left' or 'on the left side'?

Sinister reached English in the 15th century through Old French, where the word could mean both 'unfavourable' and 'to the left'.

In many countries wedding rings go on the left hand because a vein there was once believed to run to which organ?

The heart was the supposed destination of the vena amoris, Latin for 'vein of love', said to start in the fourth finger of the left hand.

Which left-handed rock guitarist mainly played right-handed guitars that were turned upside down and restrung?

Jimi Hendrix was most prominently associated with the Fender Stratocaster, the model he played at Woodstock in 1969.

Which team sport's international rules forbid left-handed sticks, so every player uses a right-handed one?

Field hockey sticks have one flat playing face, always set on the natural side for a right-hander swinging at the ball from right to left.

In The Simpsons, which character leaves a pharmaceutical job to open the Leftorium, a shop for lefties?

Ned Flanders's store first appeared in the episode 'When Flanders Failed', inspired by a writer's friend whose real left-handed speciality shop had gone under.

Studies suggest roughly what share of people are left-handed, with men slightly more likely to be than women?

About 10% of people are left-handed, and a review of 144 studies covering nearly 1.8 million people found men 23% more likely to be than women.

Because the brain's motor pathways cross over, which part of the brain controls movement of the left hand?

The right hemisphere controls the left hand, yet most left-handers still process language on the left side of the brain, just as right-handers do.

Which French word for 'left' entered English in the 1700s meaning socially awkward or tactless?

Gauche began as a French word for awkward or awry and replaced the older 'senestre' as the everyday word for left in the 15th century.

Which Beatle struggled with guitar until a poster of left-handed Slim Whitman inspired him to reverse the strings?

Paul McCartney mainly played a Höfner 500/1 bass in the band's early years, an instrument he was still using on stage in 2016.

Which golfer nicknamed 'Lefty' is naturally right-handed and learned his swing by mirroring his father?

Phil Mickelson copied his right-handed father's swing as a mirror image, and at the 2021 PGA Championship he won a major at the age of 50 playing that way.

Which southpaw became the first boxer to win world titles in eight different weight divisions?

Manny Pacquiao, nicknamed 'PacMan', is also the only boxer to hold world championships in four different decades, from the 1990s to the 2020s.

Which footballer used his left hand to punch in the notorious 'Hand of God' goal against England in 1986?

Diego Maradona's goal stood because none of the match officials saw the handball, though a photograph later showed his raised left fist meeting the ball.

International Left-Handers Day, first observed in the 1970s, falls on the 13th of which month each year?

August 13 was first marked in 1976 by Dean R. Campbell, founder of a club for lefties, to highlight life in a world built for right-handers.

Which worldwide youth movement has its members greet one another with a left-handed handshake?

The Scouts trace the custom to a story about Ashanti warriors, who had to lower their shields to offer the left hand as a sign of trust.

Which English word for skill comes from a Latin word meaning 'on the right'?

Dexterity arrived in the 1520s from the Latin 'dexter', which meant both 'skilful' and 'right-hand', the mirror image of how words for left turned dark.

Which sport is widely credited with coining 'southpaw', supposedly from fields laid out to keep the sun off batters?

Baseball diamonds are said to have been laid out with batters facing east, putting a left-handed pitcher's arm to the south, though boxing slang used 'south paw' for a left-hand blow by 1848.

Which British king, later treated for a stammer by Lionel Logue, was a natural lefty made to write right-handed?

George VI was forced to switch hands as a boy, which was common practice at the time, long before he unexpectedly took the throne in 1936.

In which country is the Cueva de las Manos, where hundreds of left-hand stencils suggest right-handed painters?

Argentina's Patagonian cave holds 829 left hands to just 31 right, which suggests most painters held the bone spray pipe in the right hand.

Nearly all proteins in living things are built from the 'left-handed' form of which molecules?

Amino acids in proteins are left-handed in 19 of the 20 standard cases, the exception being symmetrical glycine, while the sugars of life are right-handed.

Which keyboard layout lets typists spell thousands of English words with the left hand alone?

QWERTY puts the three most frequent English letters, E, T and A, under the left hand, which also makes more of the keystrokes overall.

A 2005 study found that which habit of babies in the womb was related to their handedness ten years later?

Thumb sucking with the right hand before birth was followed by right-handedness in all 60 children studied, while 10 of the 15 left suckers grew up as lefties.

Which infield position is the only one where MLB teams see left-handed throwers as having an advantage?

First base suits lefties, who cover the gap toward second more easily and need no pivot before throwing the ball to another infielder.

Which left-handed judge in the Hebrew Bible hid a sword on his right thigh to kill King Eglon of Moab?

Ehud strapped a double-edged shortsword about a cubit long where it was not expected, then told the king he carried a secret message.

Polo requires every player to hold the mallet in the right hand, a rule meant to prevent which danger?

Head-on collisions between galloping ponies are the worry, so even naturally left-handed riders have to learn to swing the mallet right-handed.

Which president, shot in 1881, is the only one known to have been left-handed before the 20th century?

James Garfield was ambidextrous rather than a pure lefty, and he held office for only a few months of 1881 before dying of his wounds that September.

Which 20th-century Republican president was a natural left-hander who nonetheless wrote with his right hand?

Ronald Reagan is counted among the White House's lefties for that reason, alongside Harry Truman, who also wrote with his right hand but used his left for most other things.

How many of the major candidates in the 1992 U.S. presidential election, including Ross Perot, were left-handed?

All three were lefties: George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and the independent Perot, so a left-hander was certain to win whatever the result.

Dental scratch patterns show which extinct human relatives were mostly right-handed, just as people are today?

Neanderthals shared the modern human bias toward the right hand, whereas most other primates split far more evenly between righties and lefties.

Which Scottish city gives its name to the questionnaire researchers have used since 1971 to measure handedness?

Edinburgh lends its name to the Handedness Inventory published by Richard Oldfield, which scores the hand a person prefers for everyday activities.

The Geschwind–Galaburda hypothesis blamed left-handedness on high levels of which hormone in the womb?

Testosterone was said to slow the growth of the left side of the brain, though very little research evidence has ever backed the theory.

What is the term for favouring one hand for some tasks, such as writing, and the other for the rest?

Cross-dominance, also called mixed-handedness, is about as widespread as left-handedness, while true ambidexterity, equal skill with both hands, is found in only about 1% of people.

The English word 'left' probably comes from Old English 'lyft', which had which meaning before it named a side?

Weak or foolish was the old sense, seen in 'lyft-adl' for lameness, and the direction took the name because the left is usually the less strong hand.

Jeremy, a rare 'lefty' who became famous during a public appeal to find him a mate, was what kind of animal?

A garden snail whose shell coiled the opposite way to nearly all others, Jeremy could mate only with another lefty and finally produced 56 offspring.

Which left-handed tennis great won nine Wimbledon singles titles, including six in a row from 1982 to 1987?

Martina Navratilova reached the Wimbledon singles final twelve times in all, nine of them in consecutive years from 1982 to 1990.

Which French composer wrote a Piano Concerto for the Left Hand for a pianist who lost his right arm in war?

Maurice Ravel composed it between 1929 and 1930 for Paul Wittgenstein, who slowly warmed to its jazz-influenced rhythms and gave the premiere in 1932.

Which brass instrument has valves worked by the player's left hand?

French horn valve levers sit under the left hand, and the bell points backward to give a more subdued sound than the piercing trumpet.

Which Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher of the 1960s earned the nickname 'the Left Arm of God'?

Sandy Koufax won three Cy Young Awards between 1963 and 1966 and pitched a perfect game in September 1965.

Which left-handed Australian, nicknamed 'Rocket', won all four tennis majors in one year in both 1962 and 1969?

Rod Laver won 200 singles titles across his amateur and professional careers, and the main show court of the Australian Open carries his name.

Which tribe of Israel fielded 700 left-handed slingers who, the Book of Judges says, could hit a hair?

Benjamin is an ironic home for them, since the tribe's name is traditionally read in Hebrew as 'son of the right hand'.

In India, Pakistan and Indonesia, custom traditionally treats using the left hand for which activity as rude?

Eating is reserved for the right hand because the left is traditionally kept for washing and other tasks considered unclean.

The British slang word 'cack-handed' can mean left-handed, but people use it more often to mean what?

Clumsy is how Britons mostly use it, one of many terms that tie the left hand to awkwardness, like the German 'linkisch'.

Which court sport requires everyone to play right-handed because its court has no wall on the right side?

Jai alai players all strap the curved cesta to the right hand, because a lefty's throw would gain a huge advantage from its spin off the open side.

Which MLB fielding position has almost never gone to a left-handed thrower since the early 1900s?

Catcher is awkward for a lefty, who must sidestep a right-handed hitter before throwing; left-handers have caught just eleven big-league games since 1902.

Which South American civilisation's third ruler, Lloque Yupanqui, had a name meaning 'the glorified left-hander'?

The Inca ruler's Quechua name, Lluq'i Yupanki, marks him out as a lefty; he reigned over the Kingdom of Cuzco from around 1260.

Which movie boxer is a southpaw, as Apollo Creed's trainer warns the champion before their first fight?

Rocky Balboa even opens the rematch fighting right-handed to protect an injured eye, with the plan of switching back to his natural stance late on.

In which city did Anything Left-Handed open a shop in 1967 selling products designed for lefties?

London's Soho was home to the shop until it closed in 2006, after which the company carried on selling left-handed products worldwide by mail order.