1930s Baby Names

12,733 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

#481
Fredrick Fredrick is an American respelling that ranks higher in England and Wales than in the United States — 934th against 1,730th, 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
#484
Essie Essie shortens two names with nothing in common — Esther, whose root is probably Babylonian, and Estelle, which is the Latin for a star.
5,550 in the 1930s
#485
Ina
5,548 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
#487
Lou Lou is a girl's name in France, a short form of Louise and Louis meaning "famous warrior."
5,498 in the 1930s
#488
Sallie Sallie means princess, and it reached English through a sound swap — Sarah became Sally the way Mary became Molly, with the r softening to an l in ordinary speech.
5,496 in the 1930s
#489
Winifred Winifred is two names that English collapsed into one — the Welsh Gwenfrewi and the Anglo-Saxon Winfrid, unrelated in every element, and birth records mark the result reviving with England setting its peak this year.
5,490 in the 1930s
#490
Nettie Nettie is a suffix that became a name — it is the tail end of Antoinette, Jeanette and Annette, cut loose and used on its own, so it began as the part of a name that carried no meaning at all.
5,471 in the 1930s
#491
Donnie Donnie ranks 563rd in Ireland and 1,804th in the United States, so the country with a fraction of the births ranks it three times higher — a pattern we see when a name goes home.
5,442 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, 1,333rd in England and Wales and 1,629th in France, and climbing on record 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
#500
Dorthy
5,231 in the 1930s
#501
Veronica Veronica is a girl's name from a Latin phrase meaning true image, and the saint behind it was invented to explain a relic — the cloth came first, and the woman was named after it.
5,144 in the 1930s
#502
Angelo Angelo means messenger, and it charts in all seven markets 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
#506
Guadalupe Guadalupe is half Arabic and half Latin — wadi, a valley or river, joined to a word for a wolf.
5,093 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
#509
Cecilia Cecilia is a girl's name of Latin origin from the Roman family name Caecilius, which derives from caecus, meaning blind.
5,033 in the 1930s
#510
Glenna
4,976 in the 1930s
#511
Olga Olga is a Norse name in Russian dress — Helga traveled east with the Varangians and became Olga, so the patron saint of Kyiv and Moscow carries a Scandinavian word meaning holy.
4,975 in the 1930s
#512
Natalie Natalie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "birthday of the Lord," from natalis.
4,959 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
#514
Nelda
4,936 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
#516
Iva
4,890 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
#521
Laurence Laurence is the one name on this site that changes sex at the Channel: it is a man's name in English and a woman's name in French.
4,829 in the 1930s
#522
Dave Dave ranks 2,217th in England and Wales and 2,469th 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
#523
Etta Etta is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "home ruler."
4,811 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
#528
Jewell
4,733 in the 1930s

What Made a 1930s Name

Children in the United States were registered with it between 1930 and 1939. A name's position here is how many of them were.

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.