The great American melting pot is not just for people. It's for names, too.

Take the name "Tamiko." It's Japanese, or at least it used to be. Fifty years ago, it was given only to girls in the Land of the Rising Sun, and in a few Japanese enclaves scattered around the world. But something happened that made it catch on, at least in America. Today there are bright-eyed Latin women named Tamiko. There are red-haired, freckled women named Tamiko.

We're thinking of one in particular, lifelong "L.A. girl" Tamiko Nash. As Miss California USA, she represents more people than anyone else in the pageant, and one of the biggest and most successful melting pots on the planet. She's a pageant newcomer, as well as a newcomer to Baltimore.

Back in Los Angeles, she works behind the scenes in the music business. But she's extremely dismissive of her own music ability. (Beautiful women are often modest.)

Some people say the 1962 movie "A Girl Named Tamiko" popularized the name (even though it was hardly a blockbuster film). But if Tamiko Nash wins Miss USA, a lot of new babies will join the club. Beautiful babies.

New Mexico was multicultural before multicultural was cool. It's never been a "whitebread" state. Many of its Hispanic and Native American residents have roots that are centuries older than the USA.

But amazingly, Onawa Lacy is the first woman of American Indian descent to be Miss New Mexico USA. She's Navajo on her mother's side, and that beguiling first name of hers is Lakota. (She's the first "Onawa" ever to compete at Miss USA. We're so sure of that, we didn't even look it up.)

If you've never seen an American Indian pageant, you've really missed something. The costumes are spectacular, but the culture is even more important. As Ms. Lacy says, Miss Indian World is more like Miss Universe than Miss USA. The tribes are really a diverse array of nations.

Ms. Lacy looks like a model, but assures us she hasn't done much "real" modeling. Though she enjoys pageants and likes the spotlight that goes with being a Miss USA contestant, her heart belongs to the law. She would like to be a lawyer for the Navajo Nation.

Hollywood needs more American Indian movie stars. We told Ms. Lacy that, hinting that we had someone in mind. "Acting? Not really for me," she said. "It's one of my weaker talents."

When you ask Jill McLain to describe herself, she says she's "very petite." At 5 feet 1, she may be the shortest contestant at Miss USA, she adds. And she seems just a trifle astonished that she's in such lofty company.

She ought not to feel that way. Whatever her size, she's a perfect fit for this competition. Beautiful, bubby, brainy ... what more could a country want in a queen?

Besides, Ms. McLain really doesn't appear so tiny to our admiring eye.

It is delightful to see that what Ms. McLain considers a pageant liability has not dimmed her spirits. She's fun. She can deliver a "height" joke, or any other kind of line, with all the aplomb of a veteran comedian.

And even if she were tall, we'd be impressed with her. For one thing, she's a cancer researcher. That's noble work, and it reminds us of how the pageant world has changed. The girls used to say they dreamed of finding a cure for cancer. Now they're out there looking.

Ms. McLain's "dream job" is medical examiner. Maybe she should play one on TV. She'd be livelier (not to mention lovelier) than some of those fictional forensic queens we've seen.

Our advice to Jill McLain: Keep twinkling, little star. You may just outshine the rest.

Amber Copley lives in Virginia, but not the Virginia of Tidewater mansions and Civil War battle sites. She's from the rural southwestern corner of the Old Dominion, a place of dark wooded hills and simple country values. Her hometown is closer to Chattanooga than it is to Washington, D.C.

Like a lot of small-town girls, she went looking for a little excitement. And she found it in pageants. She's a former Miss Virginia Teen USA, and that experience changed her life. The only bad part, she says, was having to give the title up.

Ms. Madera describes herself as naturally shy. But she had something to prove to herself and to her little brother and sister. Underneath all that beauty, she's a simple American success story.

Will the Miss USA judges be able to pass up this spicy Colorado dish? It won't be easy.

Kim Krueger's name rings a bell with a lot of Miss USA fans. It reminds them of Kandace Krueger of Texas, who was Miss USA 2001. The two beauties are not related as far as we know.

We say as "as far as we know" because we forgot to ask Kim Krueger about it when we interviewed her. Frankly, when you're with this North Dakota queen, you don't think a lot about other women ... or about pageant history. You just concentrate on the moment.

Still, she looks like a cowboy's dream (back when cowboys dreamed of girls). She's glowing and vigorous, toned by competitive cheerleading and volleyball competitions. She even invited us on a hike of the North Dakota countryside.

Ms. Krueger used to watch the Miss USA Pageant on television with her sister. Sometimes they held their own little "mock pageants" at home. It must have been good practice. By the time Ms. Krueger got into pageants, she was already into modeling, and she's done well on both fronts. She's a former Miss North Dakota Teen International and a former semifinalist on "America's Next Top Model."

She's majoring in communications and public relations, and her ultimate ambition is to handle public affairs for a major organization. "Maybe the American Cancer Society, or maybe Miss Universe." What a goal, and what a girl!

Photo courtesy of Kim Krueger

More Miss USA contenders:

Lisa Wilson, Miss Georgia USA

Cristin Duren, Miss Florida USA