The two most popular boys' names in the United States in 2024 — Liam and Noah — are both four letters. The #2 girls' name is Emma. The #5 girls' name is Mia. Three letters. Short names are not an underdog choice anymore; they've taken over the top of the chart.
Here's a full look at every short name (four letters or fewer) inside the US top 150, with 2024 SSA data.
Short Boys' Names
The very top
Liam — #1 (22,164 babies). Four letters; has been #1 in the US since 2017. An Irish form of William. Liam is the platonic ideal of a short name: strong consonants, one open vowel, works at every age.
Noah — #2 (20,337 babies). Four letters; has been in the top 5 since 2009. Biblical. Noah is the Hebrew version of the same current taste — short, ancient, cross-cultural, easy in every language.
Levi — #12 (9,513 babies). Four letters; Hebrew origin. Levi has been one of the fastest-rising boys' names of the past decade, driven by the broader vintage-biblical revival. It peaked in the 1880s and is now back at its highest point ever.
Ezra — #13 (8,774 babies). Four letters; Hebrew origin. Ezra is the other short biblical name that has exploded in the 2010s and 2020s. Unusual enough to feel distinctive; impossible to misspell; works in every culture.
Jack — #15 (8,434 babies). Four letters; English. Jack is the short name that never left. It's been in continuous use since the medieval period, was top 10 in the early 20th century, fell, and came back. It is permanently in the top 20.
John — #21 (8,047 babies). Four letters; the most used male name in English history, currently at its lowest American ranking since SSA records began. Even in decline John is top 25.
Luca — #23 (7,959 babies). Four letters; Italian/Latin. Luca is the most Europeanized of the current short boys' names — Pixar's Luca (2021) gave it a push, but it was already climbing. It works in Italian, Spanish, Romanian, and feels natural in English.
Leo — #24 (7,793 babies). Three letters; Latin leo (lion). Leo is perhaps the cleanest of all short boys' names: ancient papal name (thirteen popes), one syllable, one syllable even as it's spelled, soft consonant ending. It's been in the top 30 for over a decade.
Owen — #26 (7,574 babies). Four letters; Welsh. Owen has been one of the most stable mid-top-30 names for fifteen years. It reads as both classic and current simultaneously.
Luke — #34 (7,039 babies). Four letters; Greek Loukas. Luke has the Star Wars association (inevitably) and the biblical one. It's spent the past decade slowly climbing from mid-chart.
Mid-chart short names
Beau — #69 (4,694). French for "beautiful." Four letters, one syllable. Rising.
Enzo — #74 (4,548). Italian form of Heinrich. Climbing fast. The Italian/Spanish short names are ascending.
Ian — #75 (4,547). Scottish form of John. Three letters; has been quietly mid-chart for decades.
Kai — #76 (4,276). Three letters; multiple language origins (Hawaiian, Japanese, Frisian). One of the few genuinely multicultural short names. Unisex but predominantly male in US data.
Eli — #92 (3,723). Three letters; Hebrew. Short, biblical, clean. A name that often functions as both a full name and a nickname for longer names (Elijah).
Milo — #120 (2,988). Four letters; Germanic. One of the fastest-rising boys' names over the past decade. It's been in the top 150 for several years and is still climbing.
Dean — #142 (2,545). Four letters; English occupational name (from "dean" of a college). Dean has a mid-century cool that is beginning to revive — it was a Rat Pack era name now getting a vintage second look.
Short Girls' Names
The very top
Emma — #2 (13,485 babies). Four letters; Germanic ermen (whole, universal). Emma was #1 from 2008 to 2018 and has barely moved since. One of the all-time great short girls' names — ancient, literary (Jane Austen), pan-European.
Mia — #5 (12,113 babies). Three letters; Scandinavian/Italian diminutive. Mia has been in the top 10 for over a decade. It's the international short girls' name — natural in Italian, Spanish, Scandinavian, German, and English simultaneously.
Ava — #9 (8,662 babies). Three letters; Latin avis (bird) or Persian Ava. Ava entered the American consciousness partly through Ava Gardner, but it exploded in the early 2000s after Reese Witherspoon named her daughter Ava. It's now been top 10 for over fifteen years.
Luna — #13 (7,135 babies). Four letters; Latin (the moon). See nature names for full analysis. One of the fastest rises in naming history.
Nora — #22 (6,128 babies). Four letters; Irish form of Honora, or short for Eleanor. Nora is the vintage Irish name that broke through the current revival. Grounded in literature (A Doll's House, The Thin Man); works across cultures.
Lily — #24 (6,093 babies). Four letters; English flower name. One of the most established nature names — see nature names blog.
Aria — #26 (5,935 babies). Four letters; Italian musical term. Aria has climbed almost entirely on the back of Game of Thrones (Arya Stark) and Pretty Little Liars (Aria Montgomery). It's a genuinely lovely word: an operatic solo, a musical air.
Zoe — #29 (5,719 babies). Three letters; Greek zōē (life). Zoe is the Greek short girls' name that has been solidly mid-top-30 for fifteen years. Simple, ancient, universally pronounceable.
Ella — #30 (5,685 babies). Four letters; Germanic or Greek suffix (meaning uncertain; often used as short for Eleanor, Ellen). Ella has an effortless quality — it flows, it's feminine without being overtly so, it works in every era.
Mila — #33 (5,472 babies). Four letters; Slavic origin (grace, dear). Mila Kunis made this name visible to American parents in the 2000s; it's now been climbing for fifteen years.
Lucy — #34 (5,396 babies). Four letters; Latin lux (light). Lucy is one of the great British names now crossing to American popularity — it's been top 10 in England and Wales for years. Vintage, literary (I Love Lucy, Peanuts), bright.
Isla — #35 (5,367 babies). Four letters; Scottish (from the Isle of Islay). Pronounced "eye-la." Isla has been the defining British crossover name of the 2010s — one of the most popular names in Scotland and England for a decade, now in the US top 35.
Ivy — #36 (5,323 babies). Three letters; English nature name. The shortest nature name in the top 40.
Nova — #39 (5,044 babies). Four letters; Latin (new; astronomical term). See nature names blog.
Maya — #51 (4,220 babies). Four letters; Sanskrit, Hebrew, and Spanish (multiple origins, all claiming it). Maya is one of the most multicultural short names in the data — genuinely natural in South Asian, Jewish, Hispanic, and general American contexts simultaneously.
Eden — #72 (3,115 babies). Four letters; Hebrew (garden of Eden). Eden has been quietly climbing for a decade. It's unisex but predominantly feminine in US data.
Anna — #94 (2,700 babies). Four letters; one of the oldest continuously used names in the world. Anna has never fallen out of the top 200. It's the most stable short girls' name in the entire dataset.
Cora — #102 (2,570 babies). Four letters; Greek origin. Cora is the vintage revival name that didn't make as much noise as Evelyn or Alice but has been steadily climbing. Downton Abbey gave it a major push.
Rose — #115 (2,376 babies). Four letters; English flower name. The most classic short nature name.
Eva — #120 (2,296 babies). Three letters; Latin/Spanish/Slavic form of Eve. Eva is the three-letter girls' name that has stayed mid-chart for decades — close enough to Eve and Ava to feel familiar, distinct enough to feel like a choice.
What the data shows
Short names have conquered the top of both charts. The top 2 boys' names are both four letters. The top 5 girls' names include three names of four letters or fewer. This is a relatively new phenomenon — in 1984, Jennifer (#1, eight letters) and Christopher (#2, eleven letters) dominated. The move toward brevity has been consistent for twenty years.
Three-letter names are especially strong for girls. Mia (#5), Ava (#9), Zoe (#29), Ivy (#36), Eva (#120) — the three-letter girls' names punch above their apparent simplicity. For boys, three-letter names (Leo, Ian, Eli, Kai) cluster in the 70s–90s range rather than the top 25.
The sweet spot is four letters. Liam, Noah, Jack, Luca, Luke, Owen (boys); Emma, Nora, Ella, Mila, Lucy, Isla, Maya, Cora (girls). Four letters gives enough substance to feel like a full name while remaining easy to spell and write.
Short names age gracefully. Jack (#15 in 2024) was top 20 in 1920. Leo has been used since Roman times. Emma appeared in Jane Austen. Short names don't date the way longer generational names do — Jennifer, Christopher, and Stephanie are clearly era-specific; Jack and Emma are not.
Explore short names in depth: Leo · Mia · Ava · Luca · Isla · Nora
Data: U.S. Social Security Administration 2024 release.