Three-Letter Girl Names

Short and slight, with great potential now that names like Ava, Ida and Orla are popular. Ora Beach is a tourist destination on Seram Island, Indonesia.

This mild-mannered short form was Queen of the Prom in the fifties and sixties, but today is mostly heard on TV's The Office (and of course as one of the founders of Nameberry).

An early and still quintessentially androgynous name, now supplanted by thousands of fresher options.

Peg is a nostalgic turn-of-the-last-century nickname, sociable but slight. Like near-identical twin Peggy, Peg is in mothballs.

All the old ae/ay middle names for girls are back--Kay, Fay, Mae/May, --and Rae is one of the coolest, used as such by celebrities as Mark Wahlberg and Daniel Baldwin. Even more popular in the celebrisphere is the jazzy Ray spelling: among those who used it as their daughters' middles are Bruce Willis, Dermot Mulroney, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, Uma Thurman and Lee Lee Sobieski.

Most female Rays used to spell their names Rae, but now the Ray Charles, ray-of-sunshine way is cool for both genders.

Short and feminine, Ria has a rhythmic flow.

Sky may be a bit hippie-ish, but it's bright and sunny nonetheless. Sky rejoined the Top 1000 in 2013 after spending many years off the list. Sky was the choice of magician David Copperfield for his daughter, born in 2010.

Much-used midcentury diminutive, now fallen far from favor even as a middle name.

Uma is a sweet, strong name for a Hindu goddess... and a Hollywood one. But as popular as Uma Thurman is, other parents have not yet picked up on her name, making it a rarity.

Occasionally used as an independent name, but why.

Zoe is one of those surprising names that has been on the Top 1000 nearly every year since 1880, but it's only since the turn of this century that it's ranked in the Top 100.