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

#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
#149
Jimmie Jimmie means supplanter, shortened from James, and about 17 percent of the births in our records are female — a much higher share than most nickname-names of this shape, which usually resolve firmly to one side or the other.
31,275 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
#152
Ray Ray is a boy's name that serves as a short form of Raymond and as the English word for a beam of light.
30,880 in the 1930s
#153
Bernard Bernard is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning brave as a bear.
30,685 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
#155
Gene Gene means well-born, shortened from Eugene — and it has nothing at all to do with genes in biology, which is a separate word coined in 1909 from a different Greek root entirely, by a Danish botanist.
30,251 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
#159
Russell Russell is a boy's name from a Norman nickname meaning little red, given to someone red-haired or ruddy.
29,005 in the 1930s
#160
Philip Philip is a boy's name from Greek elements meaning lover of horses.
28,967 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
#163
Jessie Jessie is a name that arrives from two unrelated directions — the Scottish pet form of Janet, and a feminine of the Hebrew Jesse.
28,481 in the 1930s
#164
Lee Lee is a name from the Old English word for a woodland clearing, and it is one of the most productive elements in English place names — the ending of Ashley, Bradley, Shirley and Beverly.
28,425 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
#167
Frederick Frederick is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "peaceful ruler."
26,712 in the 1930s
#168
Franklin Franklin means a freeholder — a man who owned his land but held no noble rank, a specific medieval class.
26,519 in the 1930s
#169
Dennis Dennis is a boy's name that traces back to Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and ecstatic release — one of the few widely used Christian names derived from a pagan deity.
26,507 in the 1930s
#170
Douglas Douglas is a boy's name from the Scottish Gaelic for dark water, originally a river and then a powerful border family.
26,183 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
#173
Bobbie Bobbie is 83 percent female in our records and England and Wales ranks it 523rd on 110 births — far above the United States at 2072nd, reversing what an American nickname-name would usually do.
25,707 in the 1930s
#174
Gordon Gordon is a Scottish surname turned given name, from a place in Berwickshire whose meaning is not settled — spacious fort is the usual gloss but it is a guess.
25,597 in the 1930s
#175
Katherine Katherine is a girl's name whose meaning is not settled.
25,332 in the 1930s
#176
Eddie Eddie is a boy's name, the pet form of Edward or Edwin, meaning wealth.
25,267 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
#178
Laura Laura is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "laurel," the tree whose leaves crowned Roman victors and poets.
25,240 in the 1930s
#179
Andrew Andrew is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "manly" or "brave," from andreios, from aner, a man.
25,204 in the 1930s
#180
Julia Julia is a girl's name of Latin origin, the feminine of the Roman family name Julius.
25,132 in the 1930s
#181
Floyd Floyd is the same name as Lloyd, and the F is a mistake that stuck — English had no way to say the Welsh double L, so it substituted the closest sound it had, and the substitution became a separate name.
25,104 in the 1930s
#182
Theodore Theodore is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "gift of God," formed from theos, meaning god, and doron, meaning gift.
25,088 in the 1930s
#183
Johnny Johnny is a boy's name, the pet form of John, meaning God is gracious.
25,011 in the 1930s
#184
Rosemary Rosemary is not Rose and Mary joined together — it is the herb, from a Latin phrase meaning dew of the sea.
24,941 in the 1930s
#185
Jeanette Jeanette means God is gracious, a French double diminutive of Jeanne.
24,870 in the 1930s
#186
Allen Allen is a boy's name whose meaning is genuinely unknown — rock, handsome and deer have all been proposed from an unidentified Breton source.
24,567 in the 1930s
#187
Glenn Glenn is a boy's name from the Gaelic word for a narrow valley, and like Craig and Dale it is a plain landscape noun.
24,439 in the 1930s
#188
Johnnie Johnnie means God is gracious, a pet form of John.
24,396 in the 1930s
#189
Bruce Bruce is a boy's name from a Norman place name, and Scotland's most famous king carried it as an import — the Bruces came from Normandy, not from Scotland.
24,233 in the 1930s
#190
Marian Marian is a girl's name that either joins Mary and Ann or diminutives Mary alone — the sources disagree.
24,151 in the 1930s
#191
Edwin Edwin is a boy's name from Old English meaning rich friend, borne by a Northumbrian king whose fortress may have given Edinburgh its name.
24,140 in the 1930s
#192
Lloyd Lloyd is a boy's name from the Welsh word for gray, and the double L is a genuine Welsh consonant that English has no letter for.
24,002 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.