Of all first names in the United States, about 4.7 % begin with the letter R…
This makes the initial R a little more common than average. On average, each letter appears as an initial in about 3.8 % of all names, given that there’s 26 letters in the English alphabet. Of course, first letters aren’t (exactly) evenly distributed as initials: On the contrary, some initials are especially common, while others are really rare. The most common initials in the United States are A and J, while fewer first names begin with the letters U and X.
In the US, the most common girls’ name with R is Ruby, and the most popular boys’ name with the initial R is Ryan. Nearly 0.5% of all newborn boys in the United States have been named Ryan recently, while only 0.2 % of newborn girls have been named Ruby. Other popular first names with an R include Reagan, Rylee, Robert and Roman.
