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

#193
Jackie Jackie is the third most evenly divided name on this site — 48.9 percent of recorded births are female, behind only Emerson and Riley among names with more than 50,000 births.
23,893 in the 1930s
#194
Beatrice Beatrice is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "she who brings happiness."
23,879 in the 1930s
#195
Margie Margie means pearl, carried from Margaret — and the Greek behind it may be a loan from an Indo-Iranian source, so the word for the gem traveled a long way before it became a name.
23,491 in the 1930s
#196
Bob Bob comes from Robert, and the B is not a corruption but a system — medieval English made pet names by rhyming, which is why Rob gave Bob, Will gave Bill and Rick gave Dick.
23,399 in the 1930s
#197
Clifford Clifford is a boy's name from an English place name meaning a ford by a cliff — a river crossing below a steep bank.
23,332 in the 1930s
#198
Vivian Vivian is a name of Latin origin meaning "alive" or "lively," from vivus.
23,293 in the 1930s
#199
Leon Leon is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "lion."
23,189 in the 1930s
#200
Leo Leo is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "lion."
23,083 in the 1930s
#201
Eva Eva is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "life" or "living."
22,957 in the 1930s
#202
Clyde Clyde took nothing from Bonnie and Clyde.
22,856 in the 1930s
#203
Kathryn Kathryn is a girl's name, the y-spelling of Katherine, and it inherits that name's unknown meaning.
22,672 in the 1930s
#204
Elsie Elsie is a girl's name that began as a Scottish short form of Elspeth, itself a Scottish form of Elizabeth.
22,513 in the 1930s
#205
Vernon Vernon is a Norman place name meaning a place of alders, from a Gaulish word — so a French town gave England a surname that America turned into a first name, three languages deep.
22,471 in the 1930s
#206
Judy Judy is a girl's name, the pet form of Judith, from a Hebrew word meaning a woman of Judea.
22,394 in the 1930s
#207
Eileen Eileen is a girl's name anglicizing the Irish Eibhlín, and its meaning is unsettled — it may render Helen, or Evelyn, or a native Irish name.
22,349 in the 1930s
#208
Anita Anita is a girl's name, the Spanish diminutive of Ana, meaning grace.
22,335 in the 1930s
#209
Diane Diane is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "divine" or "heavenly," the French form of the Roman goddess Diana.
22,268 in the 1930s
#210
Martin Martin is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "of Mars," borne by Saint Martin of Tours, whose cloak gave Europe the word chapel.
22,061 in the 1930s
#211
Alvin Alvin means elf-friend, from an Old English name that treats elves as beings whose favor was worth having.
21,636 in the 1930s
#212
Bertha Bertha is a girl's name from a Germanic word meaning bright, and it was Charlemagne's mother's name.
21,403 in the 1930s
#213
Susan Susan is a girl's name from a Hebrew word for lily, taken in turn from an Egyptian word for lotus.
21,114 in the 1930s
#214
Maria Maria is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, the Latin and Greek form of Miryam.
20,988 in the 1930s
#215
Jim Jim is a boy's name meaning supplanter, shortened from James — which is the same name as Jacob, split into two by Latin.
20,957 in the 1930s
#216
Charlie Charlie is a name of Germanic origin meaning "free man."
20,645 in the 1930s
#217
Maxine Maxine is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "greatest," a feminine form of Maximus.
20,596 in the 1930s
#218
Herman Herman means army man, and the German national hero Hermann is a Latin scribe's version of a Cheruscan name we cannot now recover — Arminius, the chief who destroyed three Roman legions in AD 9.
20,459 in the 1930s
#219
Ida Ida is a girl's name from a Germanic word for work or labor, and it charts in all seven markets.
20,368 in the 1930s
#220
Yvonne Yvonne is a girl's name from a Germanic word for the yew tree, by way of Breton.
20,336 in the 1930s
#221
Tommy Tommy is a boy's name of Aramaic origin meaning "twin."
20,227 in the 1930s
#222
Lewis Lewis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior," the English form of Louis.
20,143 in the 1930s
#223
Lillie Lillie is a girl's name from the flower, which has stood for purity in Christian art for so long that the association predates the name.
20,135 in the 1930s
#224
Ella Ella is a girl's name with two distinct origins. The Norman French line derives from the Germanic element ali, meaning other or foreign, while a Hebrew line gives Ella as a word for a terebinth tree.
20,121 in the 1930s
#225
Harvey Harvey is a boy's name of Breton origin meaning "battle worthy."
20,049 in the 1930s
#226
Constance Constance is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "steadfastness," one of the abstract virtue names the early Church favored.
19,996 in the 1930s
#227
Sue Sue means lily, shortened from Susan, and it is one of the steepest falls on record — from 5,306 American births in 1947 to 11, a decline by a factor of roughly 482.
19,590 in the 1930s
#228
Vincent Vincent is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "conquering," from vincere, to conquer.
19,500 in the 1930s
#229
Warren Warren is a boy's name from a Norman place name, and it is the second-strongest revival on record — it peaked in 1921 and now ranks 240th in the United States on 1,493 births, a century later.
19,269 in the 1930s
#230
Jesse Jesse is a name of Hebrew origin whose meaning is debated.
19,194 in the 1930s
#231
Georgia Georgia is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "farmer" or "worker of the earth," the feminine of George, from ge, earth, and ergon, work.
19,159 in the 1930s
#232
Jerome Jerome is a boy's name meaning sacred name, and it belongs to the scholar who translated the Bible into Latin — the version Western Europe read for over a thousand years.
19,078 in the 1930s
#233
Jeanne Jeanne is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious," the French feminine of Jean.
18,824 in the 1930s
#234
Kay Kay serves two unrelated sources — the initial of Katherine, and Sir Kay of Arthurian legend, who is Arthur's foster brother and one of the oldest figures in the whole cycle.
18,607 in the 1930s
#235
Christine Christine is a girl's name from the Latin for a follower of Christ, the French form of Christina.
18,604 in the 1930s
#236
Alma Alma is a girl's name with several competing origins: "nourishing" in Latin, "soul" in Spanish, and "young woman" in Hebrew.
18,531 in the 1930s
#237
Patrick Patrick is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "nobleman."
18,500 in the 1930s
#238
Sara Sara is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "princess" or "noblewoman."
18,366 in the 1930s
#239
Stephen Stephen is a boy's name from the Greek for crown or garland, borne by the first Christian martyr.
18,352 in the 1930s
#240
Curtis Curtis is a boy's name from a Norman French nickname meaning courteous, and it is one of very few names that describes manners rather than birth, appearance or trade.
18,261 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.