The standard pronunciation of the name of the letter H is something like “aitch”. There is a variant pronunciation as “haitch”, which I have mostly seen described as originally a result of hyper-correction (because one shouldn’t drop one’s haitches). Just from watching Youtube videos (in the things that I watch this may come up for example in terms like HDMI or HDR), it seems to me that the form starting with an h-sound is actually prevalent among young speakers from England (and maybe Ireland, Wales, Scotland). As to the meaning of “young” in that statement, the instance that prompted me to finally write this question was a thirty year old astrophysicist.
Now I am sure that my own observation is prone to all kinds of biases. Is there any actual data or some kind of general consensus on the state of the pronunciation of the name of the letter H among young speakers in England? I am actually interested in all of British English, but if it helps to concentrate on England or some regions thereof, then that is fine. I have heard that the phenomenon also exists in Australia, but it is probably better to keep this question focussed on British English.
Remark: I am aware that this topic has come up here before, but questions often asked for the correct pronunciation, which mine does not. Also, I think that the phenomenon is sufficiently recent so that a 10 year old answer may not describe the current state.
