1930s Baby Names
6,742 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.
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#1,062Elsa Elsa is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath," a German short form of Elisabeth.1,289 in the 1930s
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#1,095Elise Elise is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath," a short form of Elizabeth.1,229 in the 1930s
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#1,096Louisa Louisa is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior," a Latinate form of Louise.1,227 in the 1930s
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#1,110Darla Darla is a girl's name coined in twentieth-century America from the word darling.1,206 in the 1930s
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#1,125Valeria Valeria is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "strong" or "healthy."1,182 in the 1930s
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#1,129Ava Ava is a girl's name with several proposed origins rather than one settled root.1,180 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 The statistics offices do not publish names given to very few children in a year, so a gap can also mean the count dropped below the threshold rather than to nothing.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.