How do I search for names starting with A in MySQL?

Use LIKE for this, as shown below −

select *from yourTableName where yourColumnName LIKE 'A%';

Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable
   (
   StudentName varchar(100)
   );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.66 sec)

Now you can insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable values('John Smith');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.21 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Adam Smith');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Aaron Taylor');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.43 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Chris Brown');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.27 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable;

Output

+--------------+
| StudentName  |
+--------------+
| John Smith   |
| Adam Smith   |
| Aaron Taylor |
| Chris Brown  |
+--------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to search for names starting with A in MySQL −

mysql> select *from DemoTable where StudentName LIKE 'A%';

Output

+--------------+
| StudentName  |
+--------------+
| Adam Smith   |
| Aaron Taylor |
+--------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)