Do you gravitate towards certain initials? Which ones?

I notice that I tend to like a lot of names with the same initials, and hate names with other initial.

For instance, I definitely gravitate towards names that begin with A, E, H, and R (honorary runners-up: names beginning with F, I, L, and M). If you look in my signature, practically every name combination has an “A” name either as first or middle!

By contrast, I almost always hate names beginning with B, C, D, and G (rare exceptions: [name_f]Beatrice[/name_f], [name_f]Doveva[/name_f], and [name_f]Daphne[/name_f]).

And, in fact, I’ve read that studies show that people tend to prefer their own initials over other letters (you’re even more likely to marry someone who shares your first initial than any other letter)! And this holds true for me: my name is [name_f]Annie[/name_f] and I apparently love “A” names.

[name_m]How[/name_m] about you? [name_f]Do[/name_f] you have favourite and least favourite initials? Did you name your kids your favourite initials or were their names exceptions to your rules? Does your list of fav initials include your own initial?

Yep, I definitely prefer my own initial over any others. Which is odd, I HATED my name capitalised because I didn’t like how a capital E looks. I don’t care much about that now, but it bothered me in my teen years when I had to capitalise my own name lol.

The letter E and letter S seem to show up a lot in my favourite names, I much prefer S names on girls and E names on boys. I also gravitate towards A names for girls as well as S, but boy names are just mainly E. Although my favourite boy name doesn’t follow this, it begins with an R.

I definitely prefer certain initials. Lots of my favorite names start with J, B, T, M and R. It’s frustrating because I don’t like when siblings repeat initials. I think some of it just has to do with which sounds are pleasing to me. I like lots of words (not names) with prominent B, T, and M sounds.

As far as my own initial (L), I actually avoid names that start with L. Maybe it’s because [name_f]Lily[/name_f] is so “L” heavy, but anything starting with L sounds too matchy to me!

Most of my favorite names start with A, C, or M, and the own-initial thing holds true for me.

Looking at my shortlists, this is not the case for me! I seem to love M, S, and E for girls, and I love F and D for boys. My longer list has more As on it but not overwhelmingly more than any other letter. I do love names with “ae” in them (Maeve, Saela, etc.) which could be a nod to how I spell my full name (Abigael).

I used to love a lot of A names but many of them became too popular for me so they lost their shimmer. Avery, Aurora, Ariana, and Aria come to mind here.

I love a lot of names that start with A, F, H and Z, and even though my name’s [name_f]Victoria[/name_f], I’m not crazy about most V names.

Hm. I don’t think I ever really noticed before but there are a lot of L names on my list. Besides L, I also have a lot of names starting with A, C, and S. My name starts with an M and I tend to avoid names beginning with that letter. Mostly because there is already a lot of M names in my family and it’s confusing the way it is.

I’ve definitely noticed I have a fondness for names starting in vowels, particularly Os, Is, and Es. (My favorite girls combo is a first name staring with I and a middle starting with E.)
I also seem to be drawn to Vs, Ws, and Ps.
[name_m]Even[/name_m] if not necessarily the first letter in the name, I find a lot of names containing those consonants very appealing.

C is definitely the letter I tend to gravitate towards most (though it’s only in my signature once right now.) Funnily enough, I lean away from the letter K though.

I’m synesthetic so names starting with certain letters appear as different colors. For instance N is green and A is red. I tend not to like A names but I have a few exceptions, [name_f]Ada[/name_f], [name_f]Anouk[/name_f] and Avishai. I love N girls names and I love E names for both. I especially don’t like Z, S or C names, again with a few exceptions. My two favorite combos right now are actually E.I. names! I also think B. M. and A.R.names sounds nice but I like only a select few “B” and “R” names. Color wise green and blue names are my favorite.

I’ve noticed a lot of vowel names (A, E, and O, predominantly, but I’m quite fond of a couple “I” names, too!), L, and C names for girls (Isabelle, Adele, Evangeline, Eleni, Audrey, Claire, Eleanor, Emmeline, Olivia, Arianne, Ella Snow, Luella, Ayla, Cecilia for girls, although I think I just love names that have lots of those letters, too! I’m starting to become quite keen on “V” names, too–Violet has been on my favorites list since forever, but I’m starting to really adore Vera, Vienna, Verona, and Verena, too.

For boys… lots of vowel names (I seem to LOVE vowel names), and several repeated initials with B, R, J, G, S, D, C, T, etc. (including Andreas, Amias, Asa, Avery, Auden, Augustin, Everett, Eoghan, Bryn, Benjamin, Boaz, Rowan, Reef, Judah, Jack, Grant, Grayson, Samuel, Sebastian, Desmond, Daniel, Casper, Christian, Conrad, Torin, Thomas, etc.) I like a LOT of “L” names–Leo/Leonidas/Leopold, Lorcan, Linus, Lewis, Landon, Leander, Lennox, Lev/Levi, Livingston, Logan, Loyal, Lukas, Lorenz/Lovrenco, Luke, etc.–only Lorcan is on my list just now, so I feel like I can’t claim it. When I think of initials I really LOVE, though, I think of S, B, and R in particular, but that may be because Samuel, Rowan, Sebastian, Boaz, Rowan, and Reef are SO close to my heart, and there’s lots from these initials that are just outside of my top 20 that I love.

ETA: I’m with @babies123456, though–I also see names with different colors (M is bright pink/magenta, A is generally purple, but can be pink depending on what the second letter in the name is–Amalia is like a muted pink, but Arianne is a gorgeous deep lilac color; strangely, Alaia is a mix of pastel yellow and pink–“L” names are almost invariably yellow, “E” names are often clear, but can take on a new color because of the other letters–Emmeline is a pastel pink, but Eve is like clear waters in a shallow creek–I names are often whitish or opalesque, but Isabelle is like a shallow, clear stream over sparkling gems of every color and type imaginable; Z names are often black with texture–Zoe is like a matte black with ornate Italian wedding lace draped over it! “B” is often deep blue; “S” names are often turquoise or dark green; “R” names are often very earthy or brown with some textures, too. Almost all “C” names are some shade of pink, even Casper.). I tend to shy away from most orange or red letters (“F” is almost invariably orange for me, although there’s very few names that scream red to me? Most are shades of red, like Ruby or Scarlett! I do like quite a few “F” names, like Felicity, Finnian/Finley/Flynn, Fleur, Fiorella, Fiala, etc., although I’m not sure I’ve committed longterm to one “F” name ever!). In addition to colors, I’ve noticed that most of my favorites for girls, when listed together, just feel like a bouquet of flowers, and I imagine lots of lilies and daisies when I think of them together, and Easter! I love this. And for boys, I think of the rugged, breathtaking outdoors of Alaska, particularly mountains. I think the colors I gravitate toward for each gender lend to this, and that sort of affects the names I like? Like, my boys remind me of what I imagine Alaska to be, but I don’t necessarily think the average person would connect the dots? I don’t think of Casper, Sebastian, Judah, Boaz, Rowan, Avery, etc., as stereotypical rugged boys’ names–more soft, really!–but in my mind they feel like Alaska. Then again, I love snow, flowers, mountains, and beautiful landscapes, so I’m fine with my favorite names reminding me of flowers, Easter, and Alaska! :stuck_out_tongue:

And yes, I do love my initial! I could easily name a dozen kiddos with “A” names alone.

I actually dislike most names that start with my first initial (K), but that’s probably because that letter was super trendy for my generation. I tend to like names with initials/sounds that are less common right now (H, B, D, M), but I love vowel-starting names as well, especially for middles (A, E).

I do love my own initial ©. That’s definitely one of the initials I have names I love started with the most, but in my top ten I have two ([name_f]Catalina[/name_f] and [name_f]Callista[/name_f]) and neither is my front runner (that might change of course).

Other than that I tend to love A, L, V names. But again, my front runner actually started with letters other than those.

I do seem to favor my own initial (M) more so for girls then boys. Looking over my list besides M, it looks like I tend to lean towards E, F, J, and B the most. Which is interesting since two are my siblings initials and one is my last name initial as well

Thanks for replying! It’s so cool to see the variation in colors. I love that for you [name_f]Emmeline[/name_f] is pink, and to me she’s green! :joy: strange how our minds work but very cool.

I’m definitely drawn to P, F, B, A, V, O, and G (almost your opposite!) I also find myself drawn to long E, long O, and R and N sounds in names. I am very put off by K, C, and T, with the exception of a couple of Th names (but that sound is similar to V or F sounds, so not surprised by that). I am an A, my daughter is a P, but my maiden name also began with P, so maybe that’s why? My middle name is an F.

Actually I’m kind of disappointed because my current favorite names for boy and girl are both P names and I don’t want to repeat initials!

Looking at my lists, the initials I have most names for are C, I, L, M, P, R, S, T, V for girls, and A, C, F, I, J, R, S for boys. I’ve noticed that my favourites for both sexes do tend to start with consonants, particularly C, F, M, R and S.

My own children’s names, oddly, are exceptions: I only have one other J name for girls on my longlist ([name_f]Jemima[/name_f]), three other A girl names ([name_f]Astrid[/name_f], [name_f]Ariadne[/name_f], [name_f]Apolline[/name_f]) and one other K boy name, which is a variant of my son’s name anyway ([name_m]Kester[/name_m]). I don’t tend to like K names at all for either sex, in fact!

My own first initial is E, but I only have a few E names for each on my list ([name_m]Emil[/name_m], Esca and [name_m]Emilian[/name_m]; [name_f]Eve[/name_f], [name_f]Eleni[/name_f], [name_f]Esther[/name_f] and [name_f]Endellion[/name_f]).

Interesting question!

I definitely gravitate towards names that begin with “A,” as you can see from my signature!

I really like [name_m]Eli[/name_m]- names. [name_u]Elliot[/name_u], [name_u]Elias[/name_u], [name_m]Elijah[/name_m], and [name_f]Eleanor[/name_f] for a girl. I managed not to put [name_m]Elijah[/name_m] into my signature because I do have a bit of a preference for [name_u]Elias[/name_u], but [name_u]Elliot[/name_u] slipped in there because I would nickname him “[name_m]Otto[/name_m]” instead of “[name_m]Eli[/name_m]”