Yes, it's called pigtailing. Take all the wires that need to be connected together along with one extra one that runs to the device and join them with a wire nut. Once you've done that with the hots, neutral, and grounds, you can connect the pig tails to the device.

I don't know where you get 8" from. You can use whatever length wire you feel is necessary to reach the device.

Note carefully that the receptacle may have been split (typically to allow one side to be controlled by a switch). There's a small metal tab between the two screws on each side. If that has been removed, then you need to make sure that you separate the wires that went to each screw on the receptacle to keep it the same electrically.