A is the most common first letter in these six name lists
A is the overall leader, ahead of L and E. But it does not win everywhere: E leads in the United States, S leads in Norway, and Sweden ends in an A–L tie.
A leads overall, but the leading letter differs by country.
We counted the first letter of every girls’ and boys’ top-50 position in six countries. A fills 49 girls’ spots and 40 boys’ spots. That balance is part of why it wins overall; E, the girls’ strongest letter, has only 26 boys’ spots.
A, L, and E take more than a third of the sample.
| Letter | Total | Girls | Boys | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 89 | 49 | 40 | 14.8% |
| L | 74 | 39 | 35 | 12.3% |
| E | 70 | 44 | 26 | 11.7% |
| M | 59 | 30 | 29 | 9.8% |
| S | 39 | 29 | 10 | 6.5% |
| J | 30 | 10 | 20 | 5.0% |
| H | 27 | 10 | 17 | 4.5% |
| I | 26 | 18 | 8 | 4.3% |
| T | 23 | 4 | 19 | 3.8% |
| N | 22 | 9 | 13 | 3.7% |
| O | 22 | 6 | 16 | 3.7% |
| V | 20 | 10 | 10 | 3.3% |
| C | 17 | 9 | 8 | 2.8% |
| R | 15 | 6 | 9 | 2.5% |
| G | 14 | 6 | 8 | 2.3% |
| F | 13 | 6 | 7 | 2.2% |
| W | 11 | 3 | 8 | 1.8% |
| B | 9 | 1 | 8 | 1.5% |
| D | 6 | 2 | 4 | 1.0% |
| P | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1.0% |
| K | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0.7% |
| Z | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0.3% |
| U | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.2% |
| Y | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0.2% |
A leads in four countries, E in one, S in one, with one tie.
15 of 100 ranked spots
15 of 100 ranked spots
14 of 100 ranked spots
12 of 100 ranked spots
19 of 100 ranked spots
20 of 100 ranked spots
The combined result does not describe every country.
France pushes A highest
Twenty of France’s 100 ranked spots start with A. Denmark is close at 19, while England and Wales has 15.
The United States starts with E
E leads the US sample with 15 spots, 11 of them on the girls’ list. L follows with 11 and A with 10.
Norway breaks furthest from the pattern
S leads Norway with 12 spots. A is second with 11. Sweden, meanwhile, has 14 each for A and L, so forcing a single winner would erase a real tie.
Check the family initials before falling for another A.
If several people in your family already share an initial, this count helps explain why a shortlist can suddenly feel crowded. It is not a reason to reject a name—just a prompt to write the full names together, test monograms, and look at the country that matters to you.
We counted ranked spots, not unique babies.
For each country we selected the newest year in Luma’s checked-in official snapshot and kept ranks 1–50 in the female and male lists. That produces exactly 100 spots per country and 600 overall.
The first character comes from Luma’s normalized slug, so accents fold to the base letter. A repeated name counts once for every country and list where it holds a ranked spot.
We counted spelling, not pronunciation. The table does not group sounds, name families, or variants, and it does not weight a #1 rank more heavily than a #50 rank.
Source years differ: 2025 for the United States, Sweden, and Norway; 2024 for England and Wales, Denmark, and France. Agencies also differ in how they group spellings.
Official sources and snapshot years
- United States 2025 · Social Security AdministrationOpen official source
- England & Wales 2024 · Office for National StatisticsOpen official source
- Sweden 2025 · SkatteverketOpen official source
- Norway 2025 · Statistics NorwayOpen official source
- Denmark 2024 · Statistics DenmarkOpen official source
- France 2024 · INSEEOpen official source