Baseball's Most (and Least) Common Initials

I've put together a list of major league players since 1876 and determined that 16,856 different men have worn the uniform of a major league baseball team and appeared in at least one game. Most, but not all, of those players have first and last names on their player pages. The unlucky ones include guys like Budd, McCaffery, McRemer, and Wiley.

With my list, it's possible to figure out which initials have been shared by the most major league players throughout history. It's not perfect, since players known by nicknames appear by those names in the list and not their given names. An example: Vinegar Bend Mizell has the initials "VM" rather than "WM" for Wilmer Mizell. I figure if the player was known by those nicknames more than their given names, it's okay.

With that in mind, here are the most common initials in major league history. Thirty sets of initials have been shared by 100 or more major league players:

1. JM - 281 players
2. JB - 275
3. JS - 235
4. BB - 200
5. JC - 196
6. JH - 189
7. BS - 186
8. BM - 182
9. BH - 172
10. JD - 152
11. JG - 150
12. JR - 148
13. DM - 147
14. JW - 144
15. JP - 141
16. BC - 135
17. RM - 133
18. RS - 131
19. DS - 130
20. MM - 122
21. JL - 111
22. RB - 111
23. CS - 110
24. DB - 109
25. CB - 108
26. CM - 107
27. JK - 107
28. CC - 102
29. JF - 102
30. DC - 101

It would appear first names beginning with J or B are the most common among baseball players. The initials MB (98), BW (96), and MS (96) are on the cusp of joining the above list.

In addition to the common initials, there have been 57 players who have unique initials in baseball history. Some of them are from so long ago they've been forgotten, but more than a few are from recent years. Here's the full list:

Art Quirk	Dan Quisenberry	Ed Irvin
Eddie Quick	Frank Isbell	Floyd Youmans
Heinie Zimmerman	Ike Eichrodt	Ira Flagstead
Irv Jeffries	Izzy Leon	Irv Noren
Irv Young	Ken Vining	Nick Dumovich
Nate Oliver	Ned Yost	Norm Zauchin
Omar Quintanilla	Oscar Zamora	Pete Incaviglia
Pat Underwood	Queenie O'Rourke	Quincy Trouppe
Quilvio Veras	Scotty Ingerton	Uke Clanton
Uel Eubanks	Ubaldo Heredia	Ubaldo Jimenez
Urbano Lugo	Urbane Pickering	Urban Shocker
Ugueth Urbina	U.L. Washington	Vladimir Nunez
Vern Olsen	Victor Zambrano	Walt Irwin
Wimpy Quinn	Walter Young	Xavier Hernandez
Xavier Nady	Xavier Rescigno	Yunel Escobar
Yovani Gallardo	Youngy Johnson	Yovanny Lara
Yank Robinson	Yohanny Valera	Yats Wuestling
Zeb Eaton	Zack Greinke	Zach Jackson
Zeke Rosebraugh	Zoilo Versalles	Zip Zabel