There’s a particular kind of appeal to a short baby name, easy to say, easy to spell, and yet somehow still carrying the weight of an entire meaning behind it. For a lot of expecting parents, the search for the perfect name eventually circles back to exactly this sweet spot, something compact and modern-sounding that still connects to deeper roots, whether that’s a Sanskrit word for peace, a reference to the sun, or simply a name that means “beloved.” Names with just four or five letters have genuinely surged in popularity in recent years, partly because they age well from infancy into adulthood without ever feeling like a mouthful. Here are 20 short names, ten for girls and ten for boys, each carrying a meaning well worth knowing.
