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.

All Girls Boys Unisex

Rankings for

#96
Wanda Wanda is a girl's name from Polish, borne by a legendary queen who drowned herself in the Vistula rather than marry a German prince.
43,257 in the 1930s
#102
June June is a girl's name of Latin origin taken from the month, which is named for the goddess Juno — the queen of the Roman gods and the protector of marriage and childbirth.
41,306 in the 1930s
#103
Elaine Elaine is a girl's name, the Old French form of Helen, whose meaning was never established.
41,254 in the 1930s
#104
Joanne Joanne is a girl's name meaning God is gracious, one of the many feminines of John.
40,736 in the 1930s
#107
Rita Rita is a girl's name meaning pearl, clipped from the end of Margarita rather than the front.
38,922 in the 1930s
#108
Florence Florence is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "blossoming" or "flourishing."
38,162 in the 1930s
#111
Patsy Patsy serves both Patricia and Patrick, and it is 94 percent female in our records — the male use survives mainly in Ireland, where Patsy is still an ordinary man's name rather than a woman's name at all.
37,893 in the 1930s
#112
Delores Delores means sorrows, and it is a Marian title rather than a wish — Our Lady of Sorrows, named for the seven griefs of the Virgin, which is why a name meaning pain was ever given.
37,792 in the 1930s
#113
Lillian Lillian is a girl's name usually explained as an elaboration of Lily, from the Latin lilium, and sometimes as a variant of Elizabeth by way of the medieval pet form Lilian.
37,616 in the 1930s
#114
Marlene Marlene was invented by the woman who made it famous — Marie Magdalene Dietrich contracted her own two names into one.
37,490 in the 1930s
#116
Edna Edna is a girl's name from a Hebrew word meaning delight, and it shares its root with Eden.
37,172 in the 1930s
#117
Sarah Sarah is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "princess" or "noblewoman."
36,749 in the 1930s
#118
Bonnie Bonnie is a girl's name of Scots origin meaning "pretty" or "fine."
36,571 in the 1930s
#119
Lorraine Lorraine is a girl's name from the French region, whose own name means the kingdom of Lothair — a Frankish king's realm that was carved out of Charlemagne's empire and slowly disappeared.
36,558 in the 1930s
#120
Thelma Thelma is a girl's name invented for a novel in 1887, and the Greek word it was probably built from means "will" or "volition."
36,530 in the 1930s
#122
Josephine Josephine is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he will add," the French feminine form of Joseph.
36,318 in the 1930s
#124
Juanita Juanita is a girl's name meaning God is gracious, the Spanish diminutive of Juana.
36,201 in the 1930s
#127
Gladys Gladys is a girl's name from Welsh, usually taken as a form of Claudia — which would give it the meaning lame.
34,978 in the 1930s
#128
Arlene Arlene has no established origin at all — it appears in the nineteenth century with no traceable parent name, and the Irish pledge reading usually given for it belongs to a different name entirely.
34,944 in the 1930s
#129
Sally Sally is a girl's name meaning princess, a pet form of Sarah reached by medieval rhyming.
34,838 in the 1930s
#130
Joann Joann is a girl's name meaning God is gracious, a simplified spelling of Joanna.
34,832 in the 1930s
#131
Charlotte Charlotte is a girl's name of French origin meaning "free man," the feminine form of Charles, itself from the Germanic name Karl.
34,772 in the 1930s
#132
Kathleen Kathleen is a girl's name anglicizing the Irish Caitlín, a form of Catherine, and it inherits that name's genuinely unknown meaning.
34,708 in the 1930s
#134
Audrey Audrey is a girl's name of Old English origin meaning "noble strength," from Æthelthryth.
34,480 in the 1930s
#136
Pauline Pauline is a girl's name from the Latin for small or humble, the feminine of Paul.
33,904 in the 1930s
#137
Wilma Wilma means resolute protection, and The Flintstones did nothing for it.
33,422 in the 1930s
#138
Sylvia Sylvia is a girl's name from the Latin for a forest, and the mother of Rome's founders bore it — Rhea Silvia, who was made a Vestal Virgin so she could not produce heirs.
33,175 in the 1930s
#140
Theresa Theresa is a girl's name of uncertain meaning, the German and English spelling of Teresa.
32,945 in the 1930s
#143
Jacqueline Jacqueline is a girl's name, the French feminine of Jacques, and it inherits the meaning supplanter from Jacob.
32,238 in the 1930s
#144
Clara Clara is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "bright" or "clear," from clarus.
31,872 in the 1930s
#145
Ethel Ethel is a girl's name from an Old English word meaning noble, and it is not a name in its own right in that language — it is the first half of longer names like Ethelred, cut off and used alone.
31,861 in the 1930s
#146
Loretta Loretta comes from an Italian shrine, not from the laurel — Loreto is the town where the Holy House of Nazareth was said to have been carried by angels.
31,682 in the 1930s
#147
Grace Grace is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "favor" or "blessing," from gratia.
31,511 in the 1930s
#148
Sharon Sharon is a girl's name taken from a place rather than a person — the fertile coastal plain of Sharon in Israel, known from the rose of Sharon in the Song of Songs.
31,390 in the 1930s
#150
Edith Edith is a girl's name of Old English origin meaning "prosperous in war."
31,191 in the 1930s
#151
Lucille Lucille is a girl's name from the Latin for light, given to children born at daybreak.
31,030 in the 1930s
#154
Bernice Bernice is a girl's name meaning bringer of victory, and it is the same name as Veronica — both descend from the Greek Berenike by different routes.
30,554 in the 1930s
#156
Emma Emma is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "whole" or "universal," from the element ermen, found in older names such as Ermintrude.
30,230 in the 1930s
#157
Linda Linda is a girl's name usually read as beautiful in Spanish or as a Germanic element meaning soft or tender.
29,482 in the 1930s
#158
Hazel Hazel is a girl's name of English origin naming the hazel tree, from the Old English hæsel.
29,038 in the 1930s
#161
Jo Jo is a name serving as the short form of Joanne, Josephine and Joan for women and Joseph for men.
28,931 in the 1930s
#162
Anne Anne is a girl's name from the Hebrew Hannah, meaning favor or grace.
28,730 in the 1930s
#165
Roberta Roberta is a girl's name meaning bright fame, the feminine of Robert.
27,881 in the 1930s
#166
Carole Carole is a girl's name meaning free man, the French spelling of Carol.
26,864 in the 1930s
#171
Darlene Darlene is a girl's name built from the English word darling, and it is one of a small group of American twentieth-century coinages that used the -ene ending.
26,065 in the 1930s
#172
Esther Esther is a girl's name usually connected to the Persian word for star, and possibly to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar.
25,987 in the 1930s
#175
Katherine Katherine is a girl's name whose meaning is not settled.
25,332 in the 1930s
#177
Ellen Ellen is a girl's name of Greek origin, a medieval English form of Helen whose meaning has never been settled.
25,267 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.