Living organisms are known by scientific names. These binomial names can vary greatly in length, and some can be very short; genus or species names composed of only one letter are not allowed by any of the nomenclature codes, but any combination of two letters and above can be valid if it has not been previously used. This list of shortest species names lists the scientific binomials with the fewest letters. The longest scientific species names can be found in the list of long species names.
4 letters
Ia io Thomas, 1902 – Family Vespertilionidae. The great evening bat is the largest vespertilionid bat, reaching a wingspan of just over half a metre. It occurs in tropical Asia where it lives in limestone caves. Apart from being the shortest scientific name of a living organism (and one of the shortest possible, since anything below 4 letters would not be allowed), it also has the peculiarity of being composed only of vowels. The genus Ia (ἰά) is an ancient Greek term for 'voice', 'cry' or 'shout'; the specific name has commonly been assumed to refer to Io, a woman of classical mythology, viewed as "flighty;" but chiropterologist Thomas Griffiths has theorised that it is instead to be understood as the Latin interjection ĭō, meaning 'an exclamation of joy', and that therefore the correct English translation of the binomial would be 'Shout hurrah!'; Griffiths bolsters this argument by pointing out that Oldfield Thomas subsequently named another two species with the same word (Rhogeessa io and Balantiopteryx io), thus creating a succession of "three hurrahs", and proposes that this would be Thomas's way of celebrating his induction into the Royal Society in 1901, despite having no formal training. †Yi qi Xu et al., 2015 – Family Scansoriopterygidae. This was a Jurassic theropod dinosaur that had an elongated finger which supported a patagium, akin to those of bats, which enabled the animal to glide between trees. The name is derived from Mandarin Chinese (翼 yì and 奇 qí, pronounced "ee chee"), meaning "strange wing".
5 letters
Aha ha Menke, 1977 – Family Crabronidae. This species of Australian wasp was named as a joke by entomologist Arnold Menke. He mentioned later that it was named for his exclamation "Aha, a new genus", when he first saw the specimen, with fellow entomologist Eric Grissell doubtfully responding "ha". It is found in the Kununurra region in Western Australia. †Ano da Vršanský, 2020 and †Ano si Vršanský, 2024 - family Liberiblattinidae. Two fossil cockroaches from the Jurassic of Mongolia and Kazakhstan, respectively. The genus name Ano comes from áno, meaning "yes" in Slovak (it was described by a Slovak scientist). The specific epithet for the first is from da, Russian for "yes"; so the complete name means "Yes yes", but also "refers to ¥νoδoς (anodos): an electrode through which conventional current flows into a polarised electrical device." The epithet for the second comes from Slovak si, meaning "you are", so the complete name means "Yes, you are", or "Yes, you exist". Foa fo D. S. Jordan & Seale, 1905 – family Apogonidae. Known as weedy cardinalfish, this is a marine fish species of Indo-Pacific distribution, the type locality being the Philippines. Both the genus and species name derive from the word fo, Samoan for "cardinalfish". †Hra na Vršanský & Kováčová, 2025 - family Liberiblattinidae. Another fossil cockroach, this time described from the Cretaceous of the Russian Far East. No etymological information was given, but the word hrana means "edge" in Slovak. Ja ana S. Ueno, 1955 – Family Carabidae. This is a blind carabid from the Ja-Ana Cave near Gifu in southern Japan. However, the original genus Ja has been reclassified as a subgenus of Jujiroa, so its valid binomial name is currently Jujiroa ana (11 letters).
6 letters
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