Short Girl Names

Four letters or fewer, or one syllable. Short names pair well with long surnames and badly with short ones, which is the single most reliable thing anyone can tell you about choosing on sound.

Rankings for

188 names, most popular first in the United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Essie Essie shortens two names with nothing in common — Esther, whose root is probably Babylonian, and Estelle, which is the Latin for a star.
English #3,334 in US
Beth Beth is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath," a short form of Elizabeth, and the seven in the Hebrew is the same idea as the oath.
English #3,441 in US
Trisha Trisha is the fourth spelling of Patricia on this site, and England now ranks it above America — 1,123rd in England and Wales against 3,484th in the United States, having set its English peak this year.
English #3,484 in US
Nikki Nikki means victory of the people, and both halves of the Greek are collective — nike is the victory and laos is the citizen body, so it describes a public triumph rather than a personal one.
English #3,510 in US
Tammy Tammy is a girl's name meaning palm tree, a pet form of Tamara.
Hebrew #3,678 in US
Ora Ora has three unrelated sources — the Latin imperative meaning pray, the Hebrew for light, and an Albanian word for hour — and it is reviving across three markets.
Latin #3,744 in US
Tanya Tanya is a Russian pet form of Tatiana, whose meaning is not known — the Roman family name behind it may be Sabine rather than Latin, and the Sabine language is barely attested at all.
Russian #3,778 in US
Becky Becky means to bind, shortened from Rebecca, and the Hebrew is uncertain — a knotted cord and a snare are both proposed, and the reading has never been settled.
English #4,024 in US
Vicky Vicky means victory, and it is one of the clearest cases on this site of a monarch making a name — Victoria was rare in English before the queen and ordinary for a century afterward.
English #4,078 in US
Mandy Mandy means she who must be loved, and the grammar matters — Amanda is a Latin gerundive, a form expressing obligation, so the name is closer to an instruction than a description.
English #4,488 in US
Kristy Kristy is the seventh spelling of this name family in this group, and the count itself is the finding — one Latin word has produced seven separate pages on this site through American respelling alone.
American #5,178 in US
Debbie Debbie is a girl's name meaning bee, a pet form of Deborah.
Hebrew #5,246 in US
Jill Jill is a girl's name, a medieval short form of Gillian, and it is half of the oldest surviving English nursery rhyme pair.
English #5,795 in US
Terri Terri shortens Teresa, whose meaning has never been established — harvester, summer and a Greek island are all proposed and none of them is settled.
English #6,184 in US
Mamie Mamie has no single parent — it shortens Mary, Margaret and Miriam alike, and Mary's own meaning has never been established, so the name inherits an unresolved question three ways.
English #6,258 in US
Margie Margie means pearl, carried from Margaret — and the Greek behind it may be a loan from an Indo-Iranian source, so the word for the gem traveled a long way before it became a name.
English #6,600 in US
Mimi Mimi is a girl's name that began as a pet form of Maria and Miriam, used especially in French and Italian.
French, Italian, Hebrew #7,505 in US
Christie Christie means a follower of the anointed one, and the anointing was a physical act — Christ translates the Hebrew mashiach, both describing oil poured over a king or priest at his installation.
English #7,751 in US
Kristi Kristi is the fifth spelling of this name to appear in this group — after Kristin, Kristen, Kristina and Kristine, all of them American-led despite the form being Scandinavian.
American #7,840 in US
Meabh Meabh is a girl's name of Irish origin meaning "she who intoxicates," from a root connected with mead.
Irish #8,075 in US
Lyna Lyna is a girl's name, a French respelling of Lina, which has both an Arabic sense of a young palm tree and a European use as a short form.
French #8,120 in US
Gail Gail is a girl's name meaning my father rejoices, clipped from Abigail.
Hebrew #8,620 in US
Peggy Peggy is a girl's name meaning pearl, a pet form of Margaret by way of Meg.
Greek #8,640 in US
Tricia Tricia and Trisha are the same name a syllable apart, and both shorten Patricia — which makes four spellings of one Latin word on this site, alongside Patty and Patti.
English #8,708 in US
Cathy Cathy is a girl's name, a pet form of Catherine whose meaning has never been established.
Greek #8,845 in US
Sue Sue means lily, shortened from Susan, and it is one of the steepest falls on record — from 5,306 American births in 1947 to 11, a decline by a factor of roughly 482.
English #9,306 in US
Tonya Tonya is a short form of Antonia, and its meaning is unknown — the Roman family name Antonius has no established derivation, and the flower reading widely given for it is a Renaissance invention.
English #9,318 in US
Carole Carole is a girl's name meaning free man, the French spelling of Carol.
French #10,350 in US
Shari Shari means a plain, if it comes from Sharon — the Hebrew names the fertile coastal strip of Israel, so the rose of Sharon is a region's flower rather than a person's.
Hebrew #11,850 in US
Teri Teri descends from a name with no agreed meaning — Theresa has been traced to a Greek island, to a word for summer and to one for hunting, and none of the three has carried the field.
English #12,606 in US
Stacie Stacie means resurrection, and it is a boys' name by origin — Anastasius was masculine, and the modern name descends from it through Eustace and Anastasia alike.
English #12,802 in US
Patti Patti and Patty peaked one year apart at almost exactly the same size — 3,121 births in 1958 and 3,123 in 1959 — which is about as close as two spellings of one name get on record.
English #13,503 in US
Sheri Sheri means darling, and it is French by way of a misreading — English took the adjective chérie as though it were a name, which is why it has no history as one in France itself.
American #13,527 in US
Lune Lune is a girl's name meaning "moon," taken from the French word lune, which comes from the Latin luna.
French, Latin #13,752 in US
Lynne Lynne now ranks 2,155th in France and 14,047th in the United States, so a name that peaked in America at 2,471 births ranks far higher in a country that barely used it.
Welsh #14,047 in US
Nelya Nelya is a girl's name with no single source, read variously as a Slavic short form, a form of Cornelia, or an Arabic name.
French #14,130 in US
Patty Patty belonged to Martha before it belonged to Patricia — the pet form was reassigned in the twentieth century, one of several nicknames in English that quietly changed parents.
English #16,459 in US
Vicki Vicki means victory, shortened from Victoria — and Victoria was a rare name in Britain before the queen, not a traditional one she happened to carry.
English 155,049 births
Vickie Vickie is an American name that now charts only in France — it peaked at 6,957 US births in 1956 and has left the American rankings entirely, surviving at 6,405th in a market it was never native to.
English 111,330 births
Gayle Gayle carries 67,694 lifetime births and now charts in no market — one of the largest names on this site to have fallen entirely out of current use.
English 67,716 births
Lise Lise is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "my God is an oath," a short form of Elisabeth used across France and Scandinavia.
French 42,481 births
Rym Rym is a girl's name of Arabic origin meaning "white gazelle," a traditional image of grace in Arabic poetry.
Arabic 3,533 births
Aoibh Aoibh is a girl's name from an Irish word for beauty or radiance, and the root behind Aoibheann and Aoibhinn.
Irish 684 births
Liadh Liadh is a girl's name from an Irish word usually given as gray.
Irish 287 births

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