When it comes to choosing a girl name, everything comes in cycles. Sometimes old-fashioned names are in, sometimes the new and modern take over. Some years, a pop culture event inspires a new wave of baby names — we’re looking at you, everyone Bridgerton babies out there – other years go towards the traditional, timeless names.
Believe it or not, the length of a baby name also changes with the current baby name trends. According to Quartza popular news organization, the era of long, flowing girl names like Jessica, Brittany, Amanda, Samantha and Ashley has given way to punchier, shorter names like Cora, Luna, Ava and Mia.
Of course, you can always find counterexamples, such as Charlotte and Isabellatwo great, long girl names that have managed to stay in the top 10. But if you look at the data from the Social Security Administration (SSA), which keeps track of baby names, you can see that the top five names have gotten shorter every year since the 1990s the number.
And why not? Short names are easy to remember, easy to spell and roll off the tongue. If you’re looking for a quick name, we’ve scoured the SSA list of most popular baby names to find the hottest short girl names and also offer some suggestions for some upcoming names.
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Short girl names with two letters
While there are two letter girl names out there – sort of Io from Greek mythology, which gives its name to a moon of Jupiter – none have made the SSA’s list of most popular baby names. (There are two on the list of the most popular boy names if you want to take them to your girl: Stay and Thanks.) Instead, two-letter girl names are usually shortened forms of longer names, such as You, El, Em, Yes, Lu, Mo, Rest, We or Yo.
Short girl names with three letters
There aren’t as many three-letter girl names on the SSA list as there are four-letter girl names, so there’s still something unique about them. If three is your magic number, try one of these names, listed in order from most popular to least popular.
- Ava
- Mia
- Zoe
- Ivy
- Eve
- Ada
- Amy
- My a
- Gia
- Lia
- No a
- Joy
- Ari
- Eve
- Mae
- Nine
- Life
- Sky
- Leah
- Ila
- Kai
- Bria
- Come on
And while these didn’t make the SSA’s list of the 1,000 most popular names, these are some to consider if you want something that’s still under the radar (listed in alphabetical order).
- Ann
- Bea
- Point
- Faye
- GEM
- Ida
- Is one
- January
- Kay
- Equipment
- Leeward
- Lou
- Lux
- Max
- Nev
- Nyx
- Pia
- Beep
- Beam
- Clean
- Undo
- Sam
- Prophesy
- Una
- Choice
- Wynn
- Zia
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Short girl names with four letters
For many, four letters is the sweet spot: not too short, not too long. These are all the four-letter girl names that made the SSA list — and as you can see, there’s a lot to choose from (listed in order of popularity).
- Emma
- Luna
- Ella
- ARIA
- Mila
- Nora
- Lily
- Nova
- Isla
- Zoey
- Leah
- Lucy
- Maya
- Ruby
- Anna
- Cora
- Jade
- Iris
- Ayla
- Lyla
- Rose
- Arya
- The oath
- Draw
- Mary
- June
- Sage
- Ruth
- Sara
- Zuri
- Zara
- Purple
- Nyla
- Vera
- Hope
- Kaya
- Myla
- Ana
- Wren
- Lola
- Jane
- Potassium
- Lena
- Evie
- Leia
- Thea
- Nina
- Cali
- Ella
- Demi
- Lana
- Esme
- Kira
- Rory
- Kate
- Lexi
- Skye
- Maya
- Marine
- Mira
- Lyre
- Raya
- Ryan
- Cold
- Cora
- Maci
- Alma
- Anya
- Mara
- Dior
- Opal
- Remy
- Abby
- Erin
- Anne
- Mine
- Ant
- Alia
- Nola
- Faye
- Rhea
- Macy’s
- Yara
- Pink
- Kyra
- Naya
- line
- Corey
- Lara
- Sure
- Noah
- Ezra
- Dani
- Halo
- Nala
- Aila
- Kara
- Cleo
- Iyla
- Hannah
- And I
- Drawn
- Zora
- Aww
- Kidney
- Gwen
- Noor
- Wade
- Vedas
- Elijah
- Shay
- One
- Elsa
- Zoya
- Zoe
- Zola
- Far
- Tori
Looking for more girl name inspiration? Check out our list of the best Irish girl names, Indian/Hindu girl names, Latin American girl names and long girl names, along with boy names and unisex names for good measure.
