Beware of Johns and Sarahs

Beware if your partner is called John or Sarah. It's the most likely name for someone looking for an affair online. Or at least that's the name men are most likely to use as their alias.

With the spotlight on David Beckham, after his strongly denied rumours of a fling with Catherine Jenkins, his name is doing him no favours. Dave and David are the fourth and fifth most popular name used on one of the UK's leading Adult Dating websites.

Maritalaffair.co.uk only asks members for their first names. The website has researched the most common members and found that John, Paul, Steve, Dave, David and James are the top six. The figures make a John 3.5 times more likely to have an affair than a Mike, and a Paul twice as likely to cheat as an Andy.

Amongst the girls, there are more Sarahs than any other name (2.74%). Don't be fooled by plain Janes either. They are the second most prolific on the site with 2.07% of members claiming the name, followed by Louises and Lisas.

Names can demonstrate a particular background or social sector and even though some members on maritalaffair.co.uk may not use their real name, the Christian name they choose signifies their associations between their naughty online persona and the character qualities that the name suggests.

We internalise all sorts of subconscious attributes to names and looking back at previous high profile figures who've been caught out cheating, it's hardly surprising that these names have come out top. John Terry was caught out with his team mate Wayne Bridge's then partner Vanessa Perroncel. Paul Newman's marraige to Joanne Woodward started as an affair and even after he was married he was left red faced again when caught with journalist Nancy Bacon. As for the Steves, perhaps we associate the name with Steve McClaren or Steve Coogan?

When women select their online name real or made up perhaps the Sarahs are thinking of Sarah Brighton and her dalliance with Michael Crawford, or Sarah Symonds the so-called 'serial mistress'.

Discretion is the name of the game on maritalaffair.co.uk. The site, which has 600,000 members in the UK and more active women than active men, goes to great lengths to protect the anonymity of users.

Not that they need to. Another survey in June this year by the same site found that 54% of people think that if you're going to look for an affair it's OK to do it specifically on a site for cheaters. And, 49% thought there are certain circumstances which justify seeking an affair.

The full figures are below. For more info or stats contact [email protected]

1. John - 4.5%
2. Paul - 3.21%
3. Steve - 2.65%
4. Dave - 2.62%
5. David - 2.54%
6. James - 2.48%
7. Mark - 2.47%
8. Chris - 1.86%
9. Andy - 1.64%
10. Mike - 1.33%

1. Sarah - 2.74%
2. Jane - 2.04%
3. Louise - 1.26%
4. Lisa - 1.16%
5. Emma - 1.11%
6. Lucy - 1.07%
7. Julie - 1.05%
8. Sue - 1.02%
9. Claire - 0.95%
10. Karen - 0.90%

Source: independent.ie