FLAMES calculator
FLAMES is the elimination game generations of schoolkids played in notebook margins. Two names go in; one of six verdicts survives: Friends, Love, Affection, Marriage, Enemy or Siblings.
Try a famous pair:
FLAMES result
How it works: letters the two names share are crossed out in pairs. The letters left over set the count for eliminating F-L-A-M-E-S one by one, counting on from the next letter each round, until one letter survives.
Got your score? Now blend the two names into one. Get your couple name →
How FLAMES works, step by step
Step 1 — write both names. Capitals, spaces and accents are ignored; only the letters a–z count, with accented letters folded to their base letter (é counts as e).
Step 2 — cross out shared letters, in pairs. If both names contain an "a", one "a" is struck from each. A letter can only cancel as many times as it appears in both names: if one name has two m's and the other has one, a single m cancels and one survives.
Step 3 — count what is left. The surviving letters from both names are added together. That total is the count for the elimination.
Step 4 — eliminate around the circle. Write F L A M E S. Counting from F, count off the total and strike the letter you land on. Then keep counting from the next letter, strike again, and repeat until a single letter remains. That letter is the result.
A worked example: Alex & Emma
Alex (a, l, e, x) and Emma (e, m, m, a) share two letters: one a and one e. Crossing those out leaves "lx" from Alex and "mm" from Emma — 4 letters, so the count is 4. Counting by fours around F-L-A-M-E-S strikes M first, then L, then F, then A, then S — leaving E, Enemy. Run the pair above and the tool shows the same rounds. (Enemy is the game's idea of drama, not a judgement of any actual Alex or Emma.)
What each result means
Each surviving letter has a traditional reading — Friends, Love, Affection, Marriage, Enemy, Siblings — spelled out on the FLAMES meaning page. They are the game's labels, nothing more: FLAMES reads letters, not people.
Questions
Does the order of the names matter?
No. Cancelling shared letters is symmetric, so the surviving count — and therefore the result — is identical either way round.
What if no letters survive?
That happens when the names are anagrams of each other, letter for letter. There is no count to eliminate with, and the tool says so instead of inventing a result.
Is FLAMES a real compatibility test?
No. It is a counting game with roots in school notebooks. Enjoy it as one.