A Names: Why Names That Start With A Rank #1

I also like Astrid (girl) and Arliss (boy). Good list!

I have an Arabella and I almost had an Asher. A names really are very appealing now, for whatever reason!

I do love A names! Right now, whenever I have kids, I plan on giving them all A middle names =) (Albus, Atticus, Athena & Annabelle are “up” right now)

I really don’t think that naming your child a certain name makes them a law student or that they live longer. Names are something you should love and that your child loves. Not so you can make your child go to Harvard…
I do love A names. My name is Anamarie. But I never went to law school…

I just don’t buy this theory at all. A names live 10 years longer than D names? Because D represents near failure? What about F names, then? Why are they not featured in their research?

Also, I have a niece with a D name and she gets excellent grades in school and is very intelligent. Her name hasn’t hindered her yet. And I can’t imagine it will cause her to live 10 years less than her A-named cousin. Also, my great-uncle Don outlived his younger brother Bill.

I only skimmed the sources, but it just seems incredibly silly to me. If you want your kid to feel good about themselves, don’t do it by giving them a name that starts with A. There’s a lot more to self-esteem and good grades than your initial.

I think people are confusing correlation with causation. Just because a higher proportion of people with A names live long or get better grades doesn’t mean that having an A name CAUSES these effects. A far more likely scenario is that the parents who are likely to choose A names tend to be of a higher socioeconomic status, making them more likely to provide their kids with a better education, better access to health care and better nutrition during childhood.

Funny that you posted Aiden, when Aidan is the original. I also find it odd that Aidan, the name of the Sex and the City star is being surpassed by the spelling, Aiden. Is it because the DEN is more inline with American phonetics?

I like Alice, Arabella & Araminta. Though we purposefully avoided an ‘A’ name for our daughter, because it’s such a popular letter and we could think of several ‘A’ named children that we already knew.

I personally wouldn’t pick an A or B name in the hopes of higher grades or a longer life. And I wouldn’t avoid a D name that I loved, because of these studies.

Once again, this makes me wish I had named my oldest, now 16, Allesandra instead of Cassandra!

This makes me wish, once again, that I had named my 16-year-old Allessandra instead of Cassandra!

Perhaps instead of the name making people smarter or longer lived, the higher percentage of genetically blessed parents happen to choose the letter A to name their children.

Well darn… looks like I’m gonna die early… I guess that’s also why I’m not going to med school…… I need to have a talk with my parents…

It is kinda silly to think a name could do so many things… There may be a distant relationship though. For example, maybe people in a higher social class tend to choose names that start with A’s and B’s, and these people have access to better education and better health care… So perhaps names and education/death are not directly related as these studies suggest, but are some how distantly related.

I think that ChristyHeather’s comments are spot on. I would not be put off using a C or D name because of the study. I will most likely use the names Alexander or Andrew when naming my future sons. I also like the name Arabella, but not enough to use for a child. I would consider myself rather smart. My children will probably be similar and some will be A names.

Didn’t choose my girls names based on study results. But i have two A name girls Acacia and Annalise. Both on the off the beaten track list!

I don’t buy it at all. When I was in high school, the smartest kid in school had a Z name!

Way too superstitious for my taste…

there is a huge difference between correlation and causality! i can’t believe anyone would buy into the idea that having an A name can make a child more successful. the increase in people using A names for their children because of this study will probably drastically change the results of a similar study of A names in the future (thus disproving that success is intrinsic to the first letter of a name)!

@ Rachel, well, you can’t be too impressed by my point – have a C name!

Hmmmm. . .my uncle Donald is in his 80′s and had a highly successful career as an engineer. My mom Doris is 75 and still active as a travel writer. I know tons of other long-lived and successful people with C and D names. Not to mention all the F names (such as my grandmother Frances who lived to the ripe old age of 99). I am very dubious about the reliability of these studies. . .

wow, now you have to feel guilty if you don’t give your child a name starting with A because ”if you want to give your child every advantage in life” that’s the thing to do? I do like A names but this report would actually almost be a reason not to ever pick one so as not to be associated with that paranoid category of parents

If you like A names well that is great. But thinking what you name them will correlate to their academic progress – well that idea deserves a D. Thanks Yale. Should Yale be called Ale then?

What about E-Z? So I guess the Zanders and Zoes are screwed. I call BS.

@ChristyHeather, your name is really pretty! Although I get what you mean.

I have a cousin named Adela

Maybe A names are popular because they ant their child to be smart and get A+’s or they plan to have more kids and they can do something like first baby has an A name, second baby B, third baby C, fourth baby D ETC. you know why I mean?

I think A names are more popular because thats whats at the beginning of the books!! Lol, a lot of people stop looking when they find it and some people dont put much effort into the process so if they find one they can live with in the first 2 pages, why go on?

just my thoughts though…I could be very wrong;)

[...] our last blog about names that start with A, we pointed out all the reasons parents love them: Besides their high fashion status along with [...]

Thank you Wildsyringa! I wasn’t even going to bother to explain!