lLuma Names.
Luma data study · 12 July 2026

A starts 89 of 600 spots in six national baby-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.

600ranked spots counted
89start with A
14.8%A's share of the sample

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.

The full count

A, L, and E take more than a third of the sample.

LetterTotalGirlsBoysShare
A89494014.8%
L74393512.3%
E70442611.7%
M5930299.8%
S3929106.5%
J3010205.0%
H2710174.5%
I261884.3%
T234193.8%
N229133.7%
O226163.7%
V2010103.3%
C17982.8%
R15692.5%
G14682.3%
F13672.2%
W11381.8%
B9181.5%
D6241.0%
P6421.0%
K4220.7%
Z2200.3%
U1010.2%
Y1100.2%
Country leaders

Four A wins, one E, one S, and a tie.

United States 2025E

15 of 100 ranked spots

England & Wales 2024A

15 of 100 ranked spots

Sweden 2025A / L

14 of 100 ranked spots

Norway 2025S

12 of 100 ranked spots

Denmark 2024A

19 of 100 ranked spots

France 2024A

20 of 100 ranked spots

What changes by country

The overall winner hides three local stories.

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.

A practical use

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.

Method and limits

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.

This is a spelling count, not a pronunciation study. It 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