# US cities - shortest name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 10, 2022, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040 "2022-10-10T22:22:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040/21 "2022-10-11T12:31:44Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > And Roy, Utah too. With a 2020 population of 39,306, this is going to be the population winner among three letter city names. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040/22 "2022-10-11T13:18:00Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > There’s also Jay, VT. And Jay, Florida! Both of my college roommates were from North Florida so I’ve actually been there, population about 500 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040/23 "2022-10-11T13:31:28Z")
Several three-letter “cities” in Illinois, all of them better described as very small towns: - Ava (population 553) - Dix (469) - Ina (1641) - Joy (372) - Lee (313) - Rio (209) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040/24 "2022-10-11T13:36:19Z")
Gap, PA. A town in the vicinity of Intercourse. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040/25 "2022-10-11T14:26:24Z")
The shortest named community in America was Y, Alaska. But they renamed it Susitna North in 2010. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040/26 "2022-10-11T14:45:10Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > The shortest I can find is Ai, Ohio (well, it’s not exactly a city). Kentucky has Oz but it’s so small that I’m having trouble finding its population figure. Or on a map, for that matter; Google says it’s somewhere in here: https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d17609.341338759685!2d-84.57619435688265!3d36.70648193232679!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x885d1301320b8567%3A0x59eb3b535e4cbf24!2sOz%2C%20KY%2042647!5e1!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1665499482148!5m2!1sen!2sus ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040/27 "2022-10-11T15:10:02Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > With a 2020 population of 39,306, this is going to be the population winner among three letter city names. As well as the winner for any population when you also add the full name of the state. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040/28 "2022-10-11T21:30:13Z")
@Telemark I didn’t know about Jay VT. And Rye, NY looks like a possible winner: The population was 45,928 at the 2010 census. [Rye (town), New York - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rye_(town),_New_York) I don’t know why I didn’t think of it. I’ve been to Jay NY just twice, but I’ve driven/ridden through Rye NY at least a hundred times, and been to Rye Playland many times. Coincidentally, John Jay, for whom Jay VT and Jay NY are both named, came from Rye. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040/29 "2022-10-11T22:00:23Z")
I went to Roy, Utah on business in the 90s. Remember IOmega disc drives? ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040/30 "2022-10-11T22:39:52Z")
Like Ely, [Zim](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zim%2C_Minnesota?wprov=sfla1) is in northern Minnesota, but alas is unincorporated. I’ve been there; it takes just a few seconds to go through the place. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040/31 "2022-10-11T23:16:59Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > I went to Roy, Utah on business in the 90s. Remember IOmega disc drives? I’ve been there. It’s close to Hill AFB. There’s a notable strip club there where presumably the Air Force went to blow off steam. Except, this being Utah, the stripper couldn’t strip down below what was basically a bikini. And they couldn’t serve anything stronger than 3.2 beer. . But I suppose it was better than nothing. More sinful pleasures were available a two hour drive across the Salt Lake Desert in Wendover, Nevada, where you could gamble and get real drinks. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040/32 "2022-10-12T00:07:47Z")
Roy OR Not the biggest by a long shot. I bicycle through it from time to time. The only buildings that are not a house or barn are a Catholic church and school. But it does have the interesting feature that its name+state abbrev is a palindrome. It’s not the only place with that feature: there’s a short list of them here: > **[List of palindromic places | Palindromes that include abbreviations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_palindromic_places#Palindromes_that_include_abbreviations)** > > Some place names make a palindrome when they include the abbreviation of the state or province they are in. There are other two-letter places besides the ones name Ai. Not very many but I do remember there’s a place named Ed KY. And of course Wikipedia has a list of them: > **[List of short place names](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_short_place_names)** > > This is a list of short place names, natively in Latin characters or romanized, with one or two letters. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040/33 "2022-10-12T13:34:54Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > The shortest I can find is Ai, Ohio (well, it’s not exactly a city). Is that pronounced 'I (or ‘Eye’ or ‘Aye’? Or is it pronounced ‘Eye-eeeeeeeee!’ Do the Spanish residents call it ‘Ojo’? 🤡 ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040/34 "2022-10-12T13:40:20Z")
And is the population slothful? ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040/35 "2022-10-12T13:41:57Z")
There’s always the birthplace of Amway, Ada, MI ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040/36 "2022-10-12T15:21:01Z")
There is also Ada, OK. I’m familiar with it because it has (maybe had) a large AT&T network switch. The naming convention was \\<5 characters for switch type\>. So, Minneapolis would be MPLSMN, Kansas City KSCYMO (or KSCYKS). Ada being three characters ended up with a space in the name, which caused problems for parsing in computer programs, depending on the operating system/language/etc. I presume the other listed cities had similar issues, but ‘ADA OK’ was the one used for pointing out it needed to be handled as a test case (possibly because it was first alphabetically?). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040/37 "2022-10-12T15:28:36Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > But it does have the interesting feature that its name+state abbrev is a palindrome. It’s not the only place with that feature: there’s a short list of them here: Well now I want to start a community and name it Kroywen. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040/38 "2022-10-12T18:50:27Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > And is the population slothful? Maybe we should ask an Artificial Intelligence… (Actually, I believe Ai is a Biblical reference.) > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Well now I want to start a community and name it Kroywen. That’d add to the short list of places named with the reverse of the state they’re in: Adaven, Nevada (ghost town) and Saxet, Texas (former town in Shelby County). And perhaps Aksarben, Nebraska, a mixed use development in Omaha; used to be a horse race track with the same name. There’s also three places in Canada named Adanac. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040/39 "2022-10-12T18:55:52Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Maybe we should ask an Artificial Intelligence… (Actually, I believe Ai is a Biblical reference.) Correct. > **[Ai (Canaan)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai_(Canaan))** > > The Ai (Hebrew: הָעַי, romanized: hāʿAy, lit. 'the heap (of ruins)'; Douay–Rheims: Hai) was a Canaanite city. According to the Book of Joshua in the Hebrew Bible, it was conquered by the Israelites on their second attempt. The ruins of the city are popularly thought to be in the modern-day archeological site Et-Tell. > According to Genesis, Abraham built an altar between Bethel and Ai. > In the Book of Joshua, chapters 7 and 8, the Israelites attempt to conquer Ai on two occasions. The first, in J... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-shortest-name/973040.md?page=1)