There was a rather humorous post within the last year that said a departing ATL passenger who had a last name starting with CUN/ and a first initial starting with (you can figure it out from here) got bumped up to the top of the upgrade list and cleared right on into First so as to not have those 4 letters flashing up on the board for the 20 or so minutes the upgrade list normally hangs up there. Me thinks the name did help him get run up the list a bit.

I guess they just took it off the Cleared List once he cleared.

So, some names do help you get an upgrade I guess.