Alphabetic odds for becoming President of the United States

Posted By on April 21, 2015

Seal_of_the_POTUSIf by fate, your last name begins with a letter in the second half of the alphabet, you may be at a disadvantage when it comes to being elected to public office? alphabet_1sthalfA unscientific look at a list of past U.S. Presidents one think that there might be more than just a legacy advantage to being a Bush or a Clinton in 2016?alphabet_2ndhalf

Far be it from me to believe the American voter is so shallow as to pick a candidate that happens to be listed first on a voting ballot, but my advices is that you may want to consider changing your last name or marrying someone with an “A, B or C” last name if you have aspirations for elected office.

Hmm: Those with “A, B or C” last names have accounted for 11 of our 44 presidents.

Just as interesting as 1/4 of all presidents have last names beginning with the first three letters (A, B, C) is the fact that 30 of our 44 presidents had last names in the first half of the alphabet (A-M) … compared to only 14 in the second half (N-Z).

Well, this interesting dinner conversation anyway.
Smile

LIST OF Presidents below from IPL.org:

  1. George Washington, 1789-1797
  2. John Adams, 1797-1801
  3. Thomas Jefferson, 1801-1809
  4. James Madison, 1809-1817
  5. James Monroe, 1817-1825
  6. John Quincy Adams, 1825-1829
  7. Andrew Jackson, 1829-1837
  8. Martin Van Buren, 1837-1841
  9. William Henry Harrison, 1841
  10. John Tyler, 1841-1845
  11. James Knox Polk, 1845-1849
  12. Zachary Taylor, 1849-1850
  13. Millard Fillmore, 1850-1853
  14. Franklin Pierce, 1853-1857
  15. James Buchanan, 1857-1861
  16. Abraham Lincoln, 1861-1865
  17. Andrew Johnson, 1865-1869
  18. Ulysses S. Grant, 1869-1877
  19. Rutherford Birchard Hayes, 1877-1881
  20. James Abram Garfield, 1881
  21. Chester Alan Arthur, 1881-1885
  22. Grover Cleveland, 1885-1889
  23. Benjamin Harrison, 1889-1893
  24. Grover Cleveland, 1893-1897
  25. William McKinley, 1897-1901
  26. Theodore Roosevelt, 1901-1909
  27. William Howard Taft, 1909-1913
  28. Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1921
  29. Warren Gamaliel Harding, 1921-1923
  30. Calvin Coolidge, 1923-1929
  31. Herbert Clark Hoover, 1929-1933
  32. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933-1945
  33. Harry S. Truman, 1945-1953
  34. Dwight David Eisenhower, 1953-1961
  35. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1961-1963
  36. Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1963-1969
  37. Richard Milhous Nixon, 1969-1974
  38. Gerald Rudolph Ford, 1974-1977
  39. James Earl Carter, Jr., 1977-1981
  40. Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1981-1989
  41. George Herbert Walker Bush, 1989-1993
  42. William Jefferson Clinton, 1993-2001
  43. George Walker Bush, 2001-2009
  44. Barack Hussein Obama, 2009-present

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