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 the births in our records 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 genuinely 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 genuinely 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 we track.
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 in our data — 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 we hold — 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

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.