What People Write on Personalised Playing Cards (We Counted 3,088 Decks)

Every deck we make has a line on the back, and the customer writes it. A name, a date, an in-joke, whatever they want. Since December last year we've kept a record of them, so I sat down and went through 3,088 of them to see what people actually write on personalised playing cards. Some of it I guessed. Some of it surprised me. And the Christmas ones are completely different from the rest of the year, which I didn't expect at all.

If you're stuck on what to put on your own deck, there's a list of ideas further down. But honestly the numbers are the fun part.

How I counted (quickly)

These are the deck names from Mimies orders between 9 December 2025 and 8 September 2026. I sorted them into types: couple messages, two names or initials, one person's name, family names, anniversaries, trips, birthdays and the big messy pile of inside jokes nobody else will ever understand. For the Christmas numbers I used decks ordered from 9 to 23 December 2025. That's only 74 decks, so treat it as a pattern, not gospel. No customer names appear in this post.

"I love you" wins. By a mile.

251 decks have "I love you" somewhere in the name. On 163 of them, that's all it says. That's roughly 1 in every 12 decks we make, and nothing else comes close.

The most common deck names, word for word:

1. I love you (163)
2. 1 year (15)
3. My love (11)
4. Love you (9)
5. Forever and always (8)
6. Lucky in love (8)
7. Happy Valentine's Day (7)
8. 1 year of us (6)

Plus 7 decks where the whole name is just a little heart.

"Lucky in love" and "All in" (5 decks) are my favourites, because they're card jokes. Someone thought about the fact it's a deck. Love that.

Most names are short too. The average is about three words. Which makes sense, it has to fit on the back of every card.

What people write, sorted by type

Across all 3,088 decks:

• Inside jokes and one-offs: 25%
• Couple messages ("I love you", "My forever"): 19%
• Two names or initials ("A + M"): 18%
• One person's name ("Jess's Cards"): 13%
• A family or surname: 8%
• Anniversaries and dates: 6%
• Trips and years ("Europe 2025"): 6%
• Birthdays and milestone ages: 3%
• Dad, Mum, Nan or Grandad by name: about 2% combined

So over 40% of decks are about a couple, one way or another, and that's before you count the inside jokes. That lines up with what I see every day. Most people buying a photo deck are buying it for the person they're with.

The inside jokes are the best part of my job, to be fair. A quarter of all decks have a name that means absolutely nothing to anyone outside that friendship. I'm not going to share them. They're not mine to share.

What almost nobody writes

This surprised me more than the top ten did.

Decks named for Mum, Dad, Nan or Grandad are rare. About 2% of the year, all of them combined. People definitely buy them for parents (the "Dad" decks jumped from a handful a month to 27 in August, right before Father's Day in Australia and New Zealand). But my guess is most people name the deck after the family, or a joke, or the person's actual name, rather than writing "Mum".

Birthdays are small too. Only 3% of decks mention a birthday or an age, even though plenty of decks get given as birthday presents. People don't seem to want the occasion on the cards. Which is smart, honestly, because a deck that says "Happy 30th" is a bit odd to pull out at the next card night, and one with your names on it isn't.

And barely anyone writes a full sentence. The long ones are almost always in-jokes.

The Christmas twist

This is the bit that got me. At Christmas, people stop writing to one person and start writing to the whole family.

• Family names jump from 7% to 24%. Things like "The [Surname] Family", "House of [Name]" and "The Fam Deck". That's more than three times the rest of the year.
• "I love you" disappears. 0 of the 74 Christmas decks. Out of the whole year it's 8%.
• "Love" barely shows up at all. 3% of Christmas decks mention love anywhere, against 14% the rest of the year.
• Decks for one named person go up, from 9% to 16%. My guess is these are the "this one's for Grandad" decks.

Which makes total sense when you think about it. A Valentine's deck is for one person to keep. A Christmas deck goes on the table after lunch and everybody plays. (If that's the plan, here are some card games for Christmas Day that work from the five-year-old up to Nana.)

And Valentine's is the opposite

In the three weeks before Valentine's Day (1,021 decks, so a much bigger sample) "I love you" goes up to 12%, and 37% of decks are two names or initials. Family names drop to 5%. Same product, completely different deck.

Stuck on yours? Some ideas

Steal these. Or use them to figure out your own.

For a family at Christmas: "The [Surname] Family", "[Surname] Card Night", "House of [Name]", "The Fam Deck", or the year, like "Memories of 2026". Short and the whole table can claim it.

For a couple: "Lucky in love", "All in", "1 year of us", "Our adventures", "Moon and back". If you want more ideas for the relationship side, my post on anniversary gift ideas by year has a few, and so does the one on 52 reasons I love you cards.

For one person: their name plus "Cards" or "Deck" never fails. "Grandad's Cards". "Nana's Deck". Done.

For friends: "Besties for the resties" is a real one people have used, and it makes me laugh every time.

For a trip: the place and the year. "Europe 2025". "Bali 2026". You'll thank yourself in ten years.

A couple of practical things. Keep it short, because it goes on the back of all 54 cards. Check the spelling twice (seriously). And if the name has a date in it, write it the way the person reading it would, because day and month swap between countries.

If you want to make one

Okay, the one plug. We design photo playing cards from 14 of your photos, with whatever line you want on the back. Each deck is made in 2 to 5 business days and shipped free with tracking, and for Christmas, order by mid-November. More gift ideas for the whole family are in Christmas gifts for the family that has everything.

And if you're a journalist or writer and want to use these numbers, go for it. Email us at support@mimiescards.com and I'm happy to answer questions.

FAQs

What should I write on the back of personalised playing cards?

Something short that the person will recognise straight away: their name with "Cards" or "Deck", two names or initials, a date, a trip, or an in-joke. For a family Christmas gift, the family name works best. Across 3,088 Mimies decks, the most common line was "I love you".

How long should a deck name be?

Short. The average across 3,088 decks was about three words. It goes on the back of every card, so a few words reads better than a sentence.

What's the most popular name for a personalised deck of cards?

"I love you". It appears on 251 of 3,088 decks, roughly 1 in 12, and 163 decks say nothing else. After that come "1 year", "My love", "Love you" and "Forever and always".

What's a good deck name for a family Christmas gift?

The family's surname, like "The [Surname] Family" or "House of [Name]", or the year, like "Memories of 2026". In the run-up to Christmas, family names made up 24% of Mimies decks, compared with 7% the rest of the year.