Short Baby Names

Not one but two Spice Girls are named Mel, which led to it briefly being more popular for girls than boys in the 90s and early 00s, but it has now fallen out of favor for both sexes.

Lex is still used mostly for boys, but like Alex, may cross over with the rising popularity of all long forms of the name. Lexi is another, more feminine option.

The Old Testament Noah has been so popular for so long that variations are becoming popular too. Noe is a streamlined form used in Greek and Latin Bibles, and in Georgia too. Spelled as more often as Noé, it is also popular across France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Spain.

A Pam for the modern age, improved by a harder edge and a tad less prissiness.

Flimsier than Drew spelling.

This charming West African mini name fits in with the other similarly short names that are all the rage right now. Ayo is enjoying new visibility thanks to actress Ayo Edebiri, star of TV's The Bear.

Just the kind of old-fashioned nickname coming back into style.

With River and Ocean becoming mainstream, why not consider Sea?

Fans of the late Princess Diana might remember an early nickname, Shy Di. Di was more commonly heard in the middle of the last century, when Diane and sisters were in top vogue. Today, people may take Di as a very dark word name.

During the heyday of Deborah, Debra, and Debra -- the late 1950s and early 60s -- there were enough baby girls named Deb, just Deb, for it to make the Top 1000.

Too fiscal.

A concise and zippy short form of Elizabeth, Liberty or similar, used for the main character in the novel and film adaptation of Emma Donoghue's The Wonder about a nurse sent to observe a girl who is miraculously surviving without food, to check the validity of her parents' claim.