Sort order of Playlists?

I know this is not an Apple forum, and I've asked there as well, but maybe somebody on this site knows the answer...

I use my iPod to play backing tracks at my piano gig. I have MANY playlists, to have a variety of prepared 3-set evenings. I want these to show up at the top of my playlist selectin, but the sorting seems odd.
iTunes:
Gig Folder (with a bunch of playlists similar to those below)
Apple's Music Videos, Recently Added and Recently Played
!0_recent
!0_1stSet
!0_2ndSet
!0_3rdSet
0_1gig1
0_1gig2
0_1gig3
0_Ballad
0_BigBand
0_standards
a_Gig
a_iReal
A0a1
A0a2
A0a3
a0jazz1
a)Jazz2
etc.

In my iPod, when I search Playlists, it looks like this:
a_Gig
a_iReal
A0a1
A0a2
A0a3
a0Jazz1
etc.

!0_recent is about at the lower third of the set of lists.

Is there ANY WAY to make the sort order consistent? a_Gig, a_iReal, A0a1 is WAY out of ASCII sort order. How does this work?