The most common babies' first words

When it comes to the UK’s top ten babies' first words, few will be surprised to learn that the top two words were ‘mama’ and ‘dada’.

Interestingly, however, ‘dada’ proved slightly more common than ‘mama’, making up 28% of first words compared to 24% for ‘mama’.

Despite what common sentiment, movies, and TV shows might hint at, it would appear that ‘mama’ isn’t always the most popular parent.

In general, however, ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ proved to be by far the most common first words spoken by babies, the next closest being ‘mummy’, at just 6.2%. This substantial gap might very well represent how we choose to speak to our children in order to help them understand us clearly.

Besides parent words, other popular first words included ‘no’, at 2.9%, something new parents are no doubt thrilled to hear their child say when asked to do something, and both ‘cat’ and ‘doggy’, sitting at 1.8% and 1.6% respectively.

Clearly, the family pet is sometimes a child’s favourite, most likely because they’re so soft and cuddly.

Shockingly, 5% of babies' first words were considerably naughty or cheeky, with parents standing mortified as their angelic child blurted out one or more of our all too common swear words.

When looking at first spoken baby words across the country, there is a definitive common trend.

Given that ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ were the most common words spoken altogether, they naturally appeared in the top three words for all the cities we focused on.

‘Mummy’, ‘papa’, and ‘daddy’ also made several appearances, but some more standout words included ‘car’ in Cardiff, with 7% of kids saying it as their first word, as well as ‘cat’ in Edinburgh at 12%: proving to be as popular as ‘mama’.

And proving themselves the opposite of Edinburgh, many Glasgow babies chose ‘doggy’ as their first word, also at 12%. And, of course, for those babies that didn’t want to do as they’re told, 9% of those in Sheffield said ‘no’ as their first word.

Given our survey data, it’s fairly clear that your child’s first word may very well be something along the lines of ‘mama’ and ‘dada’, and while not the most interesting of words, it won’t be long before they’re stringing entire sentences together.

Please note, the data displayed in this article is correct at the point of publication 20/09/22

[1] https://cpag.org.uk/sites/default/files/files/policypost/CostofaChild2020_web.pdf