Short and sweet: names of four letters or fewer

Before the names

Short names travel well: easy for grandparents, easy for teachers, easy to shout across a playground. Here is every one currently in serious use, straight from the latest records.

Four letters is a real constraint, and it changes what a name can do. There is no long form to retreat to on a résumé and no diminutive to grow out of — the name a two-year-old answers to is the name that appears on a mortgage. For some families that is the appeal; it is also the reason a short first name pairs comfortably with a long or unusual surname, where a longer one would crowd it.

Short does not mean new. Several names here have been in continuous use for the entire 146 years of the records, and a handful have been in the top 100 for most of them. Others arrived in the last two decades. The rank beside each one tells you which kind you are looking at.

One thing worth checking before you commit: initials. A four-letter first name leaves a monogram doing more work, and a short first name with a short surname can read as clipped when said together. Say the full name out loud, at the volume you would use across a garden.