1930s Baby Names

4,739 names were given to children in the United States between 1930 and 1939, ranked below by how many.

A name's place is its total across those ten years. Names that appear in only some of the decade say so, because a name recorded once is a different fact from one recorded every year.

All Girls Boys Unisex

Rankings for

#466
Rex Rex means king, and it is the plain Latin nominative — which makes it the pair to Regis, the genitive meaning of the king.
5,961 in the 1930s
#467
Myron Myron means myrrh, and the resin was worth its weight in gold — traded up the incense routes from southern Arabia, used for embalming, and one of the three gifts in Matthew.
5,953 in the 1930s
#470
Orville
5,855 in the 1930s
#474
Ivan Ivan is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious."
5,798 in the 1930s
#477
Jesus Jesus is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "the Lord is salvation."
5,660 in the 1930s
#478
Carlos Carlos is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "free man."
5,654 in the 1930s
#480
Perry Perry means at the pear tree, from an English place name — and our data marks it reviving, at 1373rd in the United States and 1681st in England and Wales.
5,599 in the 1930s
#481
Fredrick Fredrick is an American respelling that ranks higher in England and Wales than in the United States — 934th against 1730th, which reverses the usual direction for a respelling.
5,581 in the 1930s
#482
Ramon Ramon means protecting counsel, and both halves are Germanic — the Visigoths brought it to Iberia, so a name that reads as thoroughly Spanish is Gothic underneath, like Fernando and Alonzo.
5,560 in the 1930s
#483
Pete Pete means rock, and it began as a joke about a man's character — Jesus renames Simon as Cephas, the Aramaic for a stone, and the pun works in Greek but not in English.
5,555 in the 1930s
#486
Troy Troy is a boy's name with two independent sources — an Irish surname meaning foot soldier, and the ancient city.
5,509 in the 1930s
#492
Dewey
5,432 in the 1930s
#493
Malcolm Malcolm means devotee of Columba, and it is one of only two rising names in this group — 168th in Canada, 272nd in the United States, 362nd in Scotland, 539th in Ireland, 1333rd in England and Wales and 1629th in France, and climbing in our data rather than falling.
5,385 in the 1930s
#494
Gerard Gerard is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning brave with the spear.
5,313 in the 1930s
#495
Antonio Antonio is a boy's name of Etruscan origin whose meaning is unknown.
5,307 in the 1930s
#496
Eldon
5,298 in the 1930s
#497
Jacob Jacob is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "supplanter" or "holder of the heel," from Ya'aqov.
5,281 in the 1930s
#498
Sylvester Sylvester means of the woods, and a pope carried it into the calendar — Sylvester I died on 31 December, which is why New Year's Eve is still called Silvester across much of Europe.
5,233 in the 1930s
#499
Elbert
5,232 in the 1930s
#502
Angelo Angelo means messenger, and it charts in all seven markets we track within a 365-place spread — the United States 304th, France 343rd, Northern Ireland 397th, Scotland 522nd, England and Wales 569th and Ireland 669th.
5,138 in the 1930s
#503
Stuart Stuart means steward, and the office was literally the sty warden — keeper of the pigs — which rose to run the royal household and then supplied the name of a dynasty.
5,136 in the 1930s
#504
Timothy Timothy is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "honoring God."
5,133 in the 1930s
#505
Buddy
5,116 in the 1930s
#507
Ervin
5,088 in the 1930s
#508
Carlton Carlton means the settlement of the free peasants, and the word for those peasants became an insult — ceorl gave English churl and churlish, so the name preserves a class that the language later turned against.
5,038 in the 1930s
#513
Julian Julian is a boy's name of Latin origin, derived from the Roman family name Julius.
4,954 in the 1930s
#515
Dwight Dwight descends from Dionysus, the Greek god of wine — through the medieval woman's name Diot, a pet form of Dionysia, which is an unusually indirect route for a masculine surname.
4,895 in the 1930s
#517
Sherman
4,856 in the 1930s
#518
Byron Byron means at the cattle sheds — a working place name that became shorthand for romantic poetry, which is a longer journey than most names make.
4,841 in the 1930s
#519
Grady Grady means noble, and it comes from a byname rather than a rank — the Irish grádha describes someone held in esteem, which is a reputation earned rather than a title inherited.
4,835 in the 1930s
#520
Steven Steven is a boy's name from the Greek for crown or garland, and the phonetic respelling of Stephen.
4,834 in the 1930s
#522
Dave Dave ranks 2217th in England and Wales and 2469th in the United States, so the short form outranks its American peak market in a country that never recorded more than fifteen in a year.
4,825 in the 1930s
#524
Rufus Rufus means red-haired, and it named a king by his complexion — William II of England was called Rufus for his ruddy face, and he died with an arrow in him in the New Forest.
4,789 in the 1930s
#525
Irvin Irvin names a Scottish river valley, and the green water reading describes the water rather than the banks — Brittonic river names usually record color or behavior, not the land beside them.
4,772 in the 1930s
#526
Aaron Aaron is a boy's name of Hebrew origin whose meaning is not established.
4,757 in the 1930s
#527
Isaac Isaac is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he laughs," from Yitzhak.
4,736 in the 1930s
#529
Nathan Nathan is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he gave," from Natan.
4,719 in the 1930s
#530
Conrad Conrad set its American peak in the most recent year we hold, 2025, on 770 births — a name our records carry from 1880 reaching its high point a hundred and forty-five years later.
4,710 in the 1930s
#532
Ruben Ruben is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "behold, a son."
4,686 in the 1930s
#533
Nick Nick means victory of the people, and the compound is political rather than personal — the Greek joins victory to the citizen body, so it describes a public triumph and not an individual one.
4,685 in the 1930s
#534
Mack Mack means son of, and on its own it is only half a name — the Gaelic mac is a prefix, so using it alone is like naming a child Junior with nothing in front of it.
4,682 in the 1930s
#540
Teddy Teddy is a boy's name that shortens either Edward, meaning "wealthy guardian," or Theodore, meaning "gift of God."
4,614 in the 1930s
#544
Ross Ross means a headland or a promontory, from Gaelic, and Scotland ranks it 328th — its strongest market, ahead of Ireland at 347th and far ahead of the United States at 1465th.
4,587 in the 1930s
#547
Forrest Forrest is one of only two names in this group our data marks as rising, and it is on its second life — American births ran 490 in 2018 and 862 in 2025, having collapsed from a 1994 peak twenty years before.
4,511 in the 1930s
#549
Wilfred Wilfred is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "desiring peace."
4,490 in the 1930s
#552
Sammy Sammy means God has heard, or possibly name of God — the Hebrew admits both readings, and the Bible's own explanation of Samuel uses a pun on asking that fits neither.
4,405 in the 1930s
#558
Bert
4,333 in the 1930s
#560
Sheldon
4,309 in the 1930s

What made a 1930s name

Nothing about the sound of it. A name is on this page because children in the United States were registered with it between 1930 and 1939, and its position is simply how many. Every list of "1930s names" you will find elsewhere is somebody's sense of the period; this one is the register.

Why Some Names Only Cover Part of the Decade

A name that appears in three of the ten years either arrived partway through or faded out — and either is more interesting than the total on its own. The statistics offices do not publish names given to very few children in a year, so a gap can also mean the count dropped below the threshold rather than to nothing.

Where to Go Next

Open any name to see its full curve — most of these have a hundred and forty years of it. Or compare the ends of the same measurement: the most popular names now and the rarest.