Vowel names: soft starts from A to O

Before the names

Nearly half the current girls' top-10 starts with a vowel. Here are the strongest vowel-first names in today's records.

The concentration is not evenly spread across the five vowels. A and E carry most of the list, I and O a smaller share, and U is nearly empty in current American use — a pattern that has held for decades and is visible in the ranks below.

Vowel-first names behave differently in a sentence. They elide into the word before them, so "and Ava" and "an Ava" sound almost identical, and a vowel-ending surname butts straight against a vowel-starting first name. Say the whole name aloud before deciding; this is the one style choice where the page cannot do the test for you.

There is also a small administrative dividend. A vowel-first name sits near the top of any alphabetical list — class registers, team sheets, conference badges — for the whole of a life. Whether being called first is a benefit is a matter of temperament, but the effect is real and permanent.