FLAMES Calculator: Friends, Lovers, Affectionate, Marriage

What is a FLAMES calculator?

A FLAMES calculator plays the FLAMES letter game for you: you type two names, and it hands back one of six letters.

It's the same game people play with a pencil at the back of a notebook. Here the page does the crossing out. It's free, it runs online in your browser, and there's no app to install.

FLAMES is one of the ways this site checks how compatible two names look on paper. It carries the Game label because a count of letters knows nothing about two people. What you get is a match of letters, not of people. Our very serious letter counter has never met either of you.

What each letter in FLAMES means

FLAMES ends on one letter, and each letter stands for one word. Here are the six, in the order the game spells them.

FFriends
LLovers
AAffectionate
MMarriage
EEnemies
SSiblings

The letter describes where the count landed, not what the two of you are. It's made to be shown to the person sitting next to you, so share it and see who laughs first.

How the FLAMES calculation works

To calculate FLAMES, the page does exactly what you'd do on paper. It writes both names, strikes the letters they share, counts the rest, and counts around the six letters until one is left.

Both names are tidied the same way: accents fold to their base letter, everything becomes a capital, and anything that is not a letter from A to Z is dropped.
Letters the two names share are crossed out one for one. If one name has two Ls and the other has one, one L goes from each.
The letters left over are counted.
That number is counted round F, L, A, M, E, S and the letter it lands on is crossed out. Counting starts again from the next letter.
The last letter standing is the result. If every letter cancels, FLAMES has no rule, and the tool says so.

Names get cleaned first, the same way in every name game on this site. Only the letters A to Z count. Accents fold to their base letter, spaces and punctuation are ignored, and each name can be up to 60 characters.

Striking "one for one" matters more than it sounds. If one name has two Ls and the other has one, one L is struck from each and one L stays. Striking every shared letter at once is the usual reason two sites disagree on the same names.

Here's one pair of names, worked through from the first strike to the last letter.

Ava and Sam are made up for this example.

AVA and SAM leave 4 letters once the shared ones are crossed out.

Counting 4 through F L A M E S crosses out M.
Counting 4 through F L A E S crosses out L.
Counting 4 through F A E S crosses out F.
Counting 4 through A E S crosses out A.
Counting 4 through E S crosses out S.

The letter left is E, Enemies.

Three small rules finish the job. If every letter cancels, FLAMES has no rule for it, so the calculator says so and doesn't invent a letter. The order of the two names never changes the letter. And the result depends only on how many letters are left. Two pairs with the same leftover count always land on the same letter.

Some players use a simpler version that counts to one letter and strikes nothing. Ours is the striking version, checked against published descriptions of the game. So the procedure is fixed. The word behind one letter is not.

FLAMES variants: the letter A, the percentage version and three names

The six letters are fixed, and a few things around them change from one playground to the next.

Does the A in FLAMES mean Affectionate, Affection or Attraction?

In our calculator, A is Affectionate. Some players say Affection, and some lists give Attraction or Admirer for the same letter. None of these changes how the count works. The letter comes out at the same moment, whichever word you were taught.

Is there a FLAMES percentage?

No. FLAMES ends on a letter, not a number. Some sites attach a percentage to each letter. That's their addition, and our calculator doesn't run it. If a number is what you're after, the Love Calculator on our home page gives you one.

Can you play FLAMES with three names?

Not in our calculator, which takes two names. Some players describe a three-name version. There's no agreed rule for it, so we don't run it.

What does FLAMES stand for?

FLAMES stands for Friends, Lovers, Affectionate, Marriage, Enemies, Siblings. That's the FLAMES full form people ask for: one word for each letter, always in that order.

The flames game, the flames test and flames for love are all this same letter game, played with two names. A "flames name" search means the same thing, and so does FLAMES love calculator: two names in, one letter out.

Looking for MapleStory flames? That is a different calculator.

Can you play FLAMES on paper?

Yes. FLAMES needs two names and a pencil. The calculator above runs the same strikes you'd make by hand, so the two should agree. The page is faster, and the pencil is more fun. The full walkthrough, with the letters written out, is in how to play FLAMES on paper.

FLAMES questions with a longer answer

Is FLAMES the same as the paper love calculator?

No. FLAMES ends on a letter; the paper love calculator ends on a percentage. That method has its own page, the love calculator on paper.

Can you get 100% on love calculator?

Not on this page: FLAMES gives a letter, never a percentage. The percentage question belongs to the Love Calculator on our home page, which answers it in its own FAQ.

Six letters, two names, one pencil saved: play it again.

How we calculate it

Both names are tidied the same way: accents fold to their base letter, everything becomes a capital, and anything that is not a letter from A to Z is dropped.
Letters the two names share are crossed out one for one. If one name has two Ls and the other has one, one L goes from each.
The letters left over are counted.
That number is counted round F, L, A, M, E, S and the letter it lands on is crossed out. Counting starts again from the next letter.
The last letter standing is the result. If every letter cancels, FLAMES has no rule, and the tool says so.

The full rule, in plain words and in pseudocode, is on the methodology page.

Sources

Flames (game): Letters, the elimination version and the simpler counting version
Program to implement FLAMES game: One-for-one cancelling and the restart from the next letter

Questions people ask

How do you calculate flames?

Write both names and strike the letters they share, one for one. Count the letters left. Count that number around F, L, A, M, E, S and strike the letter you land on. Start again from the next letter, and repeat until one letter is left. That letter is your result. The same steps are set out on this page, with a worked example.

Is flames accurate?

No. FLAMES is a counting game. The letter comes from how many letters two names don't share, so it can't know anything about the two people. That's why it carries the Game label. The same two names always get the same letter, which makes the game fair, not true.

Is the FLAMES Calculator a real or fake tool?

It is a Game with a fixed procedure, so it is real as a game and fake as a forecast. The calculator really runs the strikes, and it shows every one of them under your result. You can check it by hand with a pencil.

What does S mean in FLAMES?

S means Siblings. Some players read it as Sister, and some versions drop the S and play with five letters. In our calculator the S stays. It stands for Siblings: close, like brother and sister, and not romantic.

Can you do FLAMES by date of birth?

No. FLAMES reads letters and nothing else, so a birthday has nowhere to go in the count. For birthdays there's a separate tool on this site, the Love Calculator by Date of Birth. It carries a Tradition label, not a Game label.