A is the 1st letter of the alphabet and stands for the number 1, the number of beginnings. In name numerology a first name that starts with A gives a person the plainest and most direct of all cornerstones: someone who would sooner begin than wait to be asked. This page covers A in each position of a name, the number behind it, how A differs from J and S, which share its number, and where the letter itself comes from.

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The letters that share the number 1

Ten names that begin with A, worked out

Each letter is replaced by its Pythagorean number and the numbers are added; the sum is reduced to the Expression number (11, 22 and 33 are kept).

A as the First Letter: The Cornerstone

A name that opens with A is read as the mark of a self-starter. The description that numerologists give is consistent from one author to the next: independent, ambitious, quick to form an opinion and reluctant to borrow anyone else's. People with an A cornerstone are said to meet a new situation by deciding what they think of it and then acting, often before the rest of the room has finished weighing the options. They prefer to lead a small thing than to follow in a large one. The other side of the same trait is impatience. An A does not enjoy being supervised, takes advice badly when it sounds like instruction, and can mistake going first for being right. The tradition's advice to Annas, Alexanders and Andrews is always the same: the first move is your gift, but check who is still with you after it.

The Number Behind A: 1

In the Pythagorean system letters take the number of their place in the alphabet, so A, the 1st letter, is 1 without any reduction. The Chaldean system also gives A the value 1, one of the few points on which the two agree completely. One is the number of the individual: will, originality, the urge to stand alone. Two other letters reduce to it, J as the 10th letter and S as the 19th, and numerologists treat A as the unmixed form of the three. J is called the 1 that has learned to weigh things and S the 1 that feels them. Among the four planes of expression A is the creative letter of the mental plane, which is to say that its initiative is meant to be one of ideas: an A is supposed to start with a thought and turn it into a plan.

A at the End of a Name: The Capstone

Many names end in A, among them Anna, Maria, Sofia, Emma and Joshua, and the last letter is read as the way a person completes things. An A capstone is described as someone who finishes the way they would start, by taking charge. They close a project by deciding that it is done, not by drifting away from it, and they tend to supply the last push when a group has run out of energy. The weakness that goes with it is finishing other people's sentences for them. A name that both begins and ends with A, such as Anna, Amanda or Alexandra, doubles the theme, and is read as a person who is at ease at both ends of a task and restless in the middle of it.

A as the First Vowel and A Repeated

A is also a vowel, and the first vowel of a name is taken to show the private reaction beneath the public manner. When that vowel is A, as in Mary, James, Sarah or Daniel, the inner instinct is said to be self-reliance: a wish to decide for oneself that may be invisible to others and is felt strongly all the same. A name with several As, like Barbara or Samantha, piles up the number 1. In the fuller method that counts every letter, a name with many 1s is read as abundant in drive and short on patience with compromise, while a name with no A, J or S at all is said to have to learn initiative the slow way.

Strengths and Friction

Put together, the picture numerology draws of an A name is a clear one. The strengths are courage, plain speaking, a talent for getting things under way and the ability to work without encouragement. The points of friction are stubbornness, a short temper when held back and a habit of treating help as interference. Authors usually add that an A does best in work with visible results and a wide margin of freedom, and worst in a role that consists of carrying out somebody else's decisions. In friendship the A is described as loyal and protective but not always a good listener. None of this is fate. It is the character sketch that the tradition attaches to the letter, and it is most useful as a question: where do I insist on going first, and what does it cost?

Where the Letter A Comes From

A began as a picture of an ox. In the Phoenician alphabet of some three thousand years ago the first letter was aleph, the word for an ox, drawn as a horned head, and it stood for a consonant, a catch in the throat. The Greeks, who had no use for that sound, borrowed the sign for the vowel and called it alpha, and in the course of being copied it was turned until the horns pointed down and became the legs of the modern letter. The Romans passed it on unchanged. It has been first in almost every alphabet descended from the Phoenician, which is the origin of phrases such as from A to Z and alpha and omega. In English it is the third most frequently used letter, after E and T.

Frequently asked

What does it mean if your name starts with A?

In numerology A is the number 1, and as a first letter it is read as independence and initiative: a person who likes to begin things, form their own view and take the lead.

What number is the letter A in numerology?

1 in both the Pythagorean and the Chaldean systems. It shares that number with J and S.

Is A a lucky first letter?

No letter is lucky or unlucky in itself. A is associated with drive and leadership, and also with impatience; what it brings depends on the rest of the name and on the person.

What does A mean at the end of a name?

As a last letter A is the capstone, read as a decisive way of finishing: seeing things through and calling them done.

Birth charts of people whose name begins with A

First letters, one by one