What were the most and least popular first letters for baby names in 2009? The big winner was A, the big loser was U.
A-names accounted for over 12.3% of the baby names registered last year, while U-names accounted for less than .2%.
A-, J- and K-names went to over 31% of 2009’s babies. U-, X- and Q-names, on the other hand, were given to less than 1%.
The most popular first letters for baby girls was also A, by a long shot. About 15% of girls got an A-name.
Second and third place were M and K, both over 9%. Fourth and fifth were J (over 8%) and S (over 7%). These five letters accounted for close to 50% of all the girl names given last year.
The most popular first letters for baby boys was J. Over 11% of boys got a J-name.
Second and third place went to A and K, both over 9%. Next were D (over 7%), T and M (both over 6%). These six letters accounted for more than 50% of all the boy names given last year.
[My sample included the names of 1,814,929 baby girls and 1,958,848 baby boys born in the U.S. in 2009. I excluded non-names like Baby, Babyboy, Babygirl, Unknown and Unnamed from the calculations. All data came from the SSA.]
UPDATE – More recent versions of this post:
- Most Popular First Letters, 2013
- Most Popular First Letters, 2012
- Most Popular First Letters, 2011
- Most Popular First Letters, boys and girls, 2010