[OC] What is the average name of an NBA player in 2026? (+ Other fun name stuff)
Inspired by this post from 2018 that found the average NBA name was Jaree Baree, I ran the same analysis on the 2026 roster data. Same methodology: count the frequency of every letter at every position of every player’s name, then take the most common letter at each position up to the average name length.
Average First Name
Rows are what letter. Columns are position of letter. Cell is count. Bold = most frequent at that position.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | 39 | 167 | 68 | 44 | 49 | 22 | 8 | 3 | 1 | |
| b | 30 | 1 | 16 | 3 | 6 | |||||
| c | 43 | 5 | 21 | 17 | 9 | 10 | 2 | 1 | ||
| d | 58 | 4 | 19 | 22 | 15 | 6 | 5 | 3 | ||
| e | 8 | 67 | 40 | 75 | 50 | 28 | 17 | 4 | 1 | |
| f | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| g | 15 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 1 | |||||
| h | 9 | 19 | 13 | 25 | 8 | 16 | 2 | 3 | ||
| i | 12 | 42 | 24 | 63 | 34 | 14 | 7 | 1 | ||
| j | 99 | 14 | 4 | 5 | ||||||
| k | 43 | 1 | 16 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 1 | ||
| l | 20 | 16 | 62 | 27 | 19 | 8 | 9 | 2 | ||
| m | 40 | 6 | 26 | 17 | 8 | 2 | 1 | |||
| n | 23 | 13 | 39 | 52 | 59 | 64 | 34 | 7 | 4 | 1 |
| o | 11 | 86 | 20 | 35 | 35 | 20 | 8 | 3 | 2 | |
| p | 17 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | |||||
| q | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| r | 19 | 49 | 73 | 29 | 22 | 19 | 5 | |||
| s | 23 | 13 | 29 | 17 | 30 | 18 | 6 | 5 | 1 | |
| t | 45 | 5 | 18 | 23 | 20 | 10 | 6 | 1 | ||
| u | 37 | 15 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| v | 5 | 4 | 17 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||
| w | 6 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| x | 1 | 6 | 4 | 1 | ||||||
| y | 4 | 27 | 22 | 20 | 15 | 12 | 7 | 1 | ||
| z | 8 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 582 | 582 | 562 | 521 | 403 | 259 | 123 | 35 | 12 | 4 | |
Average Last Name
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | 18 | 138 | 42 | 35 | 43 | 44 | 16 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | ||
| b | 51 | 1 | 18 | 11 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| c | 43 | 15 | 21 | 17 | 15 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| d | 24 | 7 | 13 | 32 | 8 | 9 | 14 | 10 | 3 | 1 | ||||
| e | 12 | 57 | 41 | 69 | 95 | 48 | 23 | 15 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| f | 11 | 5 | 9 | 4 | ||||||||||
| g | 31 | 2 | 14 | 7 | 15 | 7 | 11 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| h | 39 | 25 | 12 | 15 | 23 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||
| i | 6 | 74 | 27 | 33 | 66 | 17 | 17 | 14 | 15 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| j | 39 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 1 | ||||||
| k | 20 | 4 | 6 | 24 | 11 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||
| l | 20 | 27 | 71 | 61 | 26 | 19 | 15 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||
| m | 56 | 12 | 18 | 18 | 13 | 9 | 20 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |||
| n | 10 | 14 | 59 | 51 | 49 | 63 | 38 | 19 | 9 | 12 | 2 | 1 | ||
| o | 10 | 107 | 33 | 19 | 31 | 39 | 18 | 13 | 8 | 4 | 3 | |||
| p | 32 | 2 | 8 | 14 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||||
| q | 3 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| r | 23 | 36 | 79 | 41 | 23 | 51 | 29 | 15 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 1 | ||
| s | 48 | 3 | 26 | 24 | 55 | 33 | 28 | 25 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | ||
| t | 27 | 5 | 24 | 50 | 15 | 19 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 2 | ||||
| u | 1 | 44 | 18 | 15 | 9 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 1 | ||||
| v | 6 | 3 | 13 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| w | 45 | 14 | 11 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 1 | |||||||
| x | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| y | 5 | 6 | 13 | 7 | 12 | 19 | 8 | 4 | 2 | |||||
| z | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 582 | 582 | 582 | 578 | 542 | 422 | 283 | 162 | 83 | 49 | 19 | 12 | 7 | 4 | |
Taking the most frequent letters at each position and the average name lengths (5.3 for first, 6.7 for last), the most average name in the 2026 NBA is:
Not kidding. You heard it here first.
Notes:
| Player | Score |
|---|---|
| Jaime Jaquez Jr. | 54 |
| Nickeil Alexander-Walker | 43 |
| Johnny Juzang | 42 |
| Jaren Jackson Jr. | 41 |
| Kentavious Caldwell-Pope | 39 |
Jaime Jaquez Jr. wins with 54 points, largely on the back of two J’s (8 pts each) and a Q (10 pts). He is worth more in Scrabble than most starting lineups.
Lowest score goes to Tari Eason and Tre Mann, tied at 9. They are basically free in Scrabble.
Longest and shortest names
Longest:
Yanic Konan Niederhäuser — 22 letters Nickeil Alexander-Walker — 22 letters Kentavious Caldwell-Pope — 22 letters
Shortest: PJ Hall at 6 letters.
Alliterative names (same starting letter for first and last)
The league has 33 alliterative names, which is an absurd number. Highlights:
Most vowels in a first name
Adou Thiero wins — his first name is 75% vowels. “Adou” is four letters, three of which are vowels. The man is practically a vowel delivery system with one consonant for stability.
Runners up include Ayo, Ace, Rui, Gui, Oso, and Isaiah (67% each).
Points per letter in your name
Luka Dončić’s name (stripped of accents) is 10 letters. He scored 2,143 points. That is 214.3 points per letter. He is the most efficient name in basketball.
| Player | PTS | Letters | Pts/letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luka Dončić | 2,143 | 10 | 214.3 |
| Jaylen Brown | 2,038 | 11 | 185.3 |
| Kevin Durant | 2,026 | 11 | 184.2 |
| Tyrese Maxey | 1,980 | 11 | 180.0 |
| Jamal Murray | 1,905 | 11 | 173.2 |
Names with all unique letters
Players whose full name contains zero repeated letters:
Jrue Holiday (11 unique letters), Jahmir Young (11), Jalen Smith (10), Cody Martin (10), Trae Young (9), Coby White (9), Chris Paul (9), Taj Gibson (9), Duop Reath (9), Kam Jones (8), Dru Smith (8), CJ Huntley (9)
Jrue Holiday and Jahmir Young are tied at 11 unique letters each. Every single letter in “Jrue Holiday” is different. That name contains no waste.
The backup average names
What if we took the 2nd most common letter at each position instead of the first?
2nd most common: Doaie Bollirr 3rd most common: Telna Sinnses
And I hate to end on a sad note, but no palindromes were found. The NBA has failed us.