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

#241
Bessie Bessie is a girl's name meaning God is my oath, a pet form of Elizabeth.
18,182 in the 1930s
#242
Vera Vera is a girl's name with two origins that both work. In Russian it means "faith"; in Latin vera means "true" — and unusually for such a pair, the two senses reinforce rather than contradict each other.
18,135 in the 1930s
#243
Agnes Agnes is a girl's name from the Greek for pure, and the reason its saint is shown with a lamb is a Latin pun — agnus, lamb, sounds like the Greek hagnos but is a completely different word.
18,111 in the 1930s
#244
Arnold Arnold means eagle power, and England and Wales ranks it 631st on 59 births — well above the United States at 1478th, which is not what the name's twentieth-century American associations would predict.
17,995 in the 1930s
#245
Gilbert Gilbert is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning bright pledge, and it founded the only medieval religious order native to England.
17,854 in the 1930s
#246
Nellie Nellie is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "shining light."
17,835 in the 1930s
#247
Gail Gail is a girl's name meaning my father rejoices, clipped from Abigail.
17,721 in the 1930s
#248
Elmer Elmer means noble and famous, and its American popularity is traceable to two brothers — the Ebenezer and Jonathan Elmer who signed early revolutionary documents, after whom patriotic families went on to name sons.
17,686 in the 1930s
#249
Cecil Cecil means blind, from a Roman family name, and the saint who made it famous is patron of music on the strength of one ambiguous line in her own account of her wedding day.
17,253 in the 1930s
#250
Lester Lester means from Leicester, and the spelling is the honest one — Leicester has been pronounced LES-ter for centuries, so the surname simply wrote down what people had actually been saying to each other all along.
17,164 in the 1930s
#251
Duane Duane means the little dark one, from an Irish surname built on the word for black — and that same root also gives us Dublin, which means the black pool that the city originally grew up around.
17,090 in the 1930s
#252
Connie Connie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "steadfast" or "constant."
16,955 in the 1930s
#253
Pat Pat is one of the most evenly divided names on this site — about 60 percent of the births in our records are female, because it shortens both Patricia and Patrick and neither side ever won.
16,772 in the 1930s
#254
Karen Karen is a girl's name, the Danish form of Katherine, and it inherits that name's genuinely unknown meaning.
16,760 in the 1930s
#255
Phillip Phillip is a boy's name meaning lover of horses, the doubled-l spelling of Philip.
16,602 in the 1930s
#256
Lucy Lucy is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "light," from lux.
16,530 in the 1930s
#257
Tom Tom is a boy's name of Aramaic origin meaning "twin," a short form of Thomas used as a full name across Europe.
16,526 in the 1930s
#258
Mattie Mattie serves two entirely unrelated names — Martha, which is Aramaic for a lady, and Matilda, which is Germanic for might in battle.
16,463 in the 1930s
#259
Alan Alan is a boy's name of Breton origin whose meaning has never been established.
16,409 in the 1930s
#260
Gertrude Gertrude is a girl's name from Germanic elements meaning spear-strength, and its saint is patron of cats — a modern attribution that no medieval source supports.
16,238 in the 1930s
#261
Rosa Rosa is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "rose."
16,221 in the 1930s
#262
Minnie Minnie Mouse did not make Minnie popular.
16,017 in the 1930s
#263
Milton Milton means the mill settlement, and there is a second and quite separate source meaning the middle settlement — two entirely different Old English place names that ended up producing exactly the same modern spelling.
15,832 in the 1930s
#264
Victor Victor is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "conqueror."
15,681 in the 1930s
#265
Roland Roland is a boy's name meaning famous land, and its bearer is the hero of France's national epic — a knight who dies at Roncevaux because he is too proud to blow his horn for help.
15,080 in the 1930s
#266
Glen Glen means a narrow valley, and it is one of very few Gaelic words that English borrowed wholesale rather than adapting to its own sounds.
14,709 in the 1930s
#267
Benjamin Benjamin is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "son of the right hand," from Binyamin.
14,684 in the 1930s
#268
Chester Chester is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "fortress" or "walled camp."
14,527 in the 1930s
#269
Velma Velma is an invented name with no root at all — it appears in nineteenth-century America built on the pattern of Selma and Thelma, and the Germanic derivations offered for it were attached afterwards.
14,359 in the 1930s
#270
Geneva Geneva is not named after the Swiss city — it is a form of Genevieve, whose own meaning is unsettled, and the city's name comes from a Celtic word for a bend or estuary entirely separately.
14,353 in the 1930s
#271
Viola Viola means violet, and it names the flower, the instrument and a Shakespeare heroine from the same Latin root.
14,345 in the 1930s
#272
Marcia Marcia means dedicated to Mars, and that god's name is also where the month of March comes from — the Roman year began in March, because that was when the campaigning season opened up again after the winter.
14,292 in the 1930s
#273
Calvin Calvin is a boy's name of French origin meaning "little bald one," from the Latin calvus, bald.
14,284 in the 1930s
#274
Leona Leona means lioness, and our data marks it reviving across six markets — the United States 429th, France 556th, Scotland 631st, Ireland 705th and England and Wales 716th, all within 290 places.
14,243 in the 1930s
#275
Myrtle Myrtle means the evergreen shrub, and it was the plant of Aphrodite — carried by Greek and Roman brides long before the Victorians made it a name.
14,224 in the 1930s
#276
Dean Dean is a boy's name with two English origins.
14,189 in the 1930s
#277
Keith Keith is a boy's name from a Scottish place name, probably from a Brittonic word for a wood.
13,961 in the 1930s
#278
Violet Violet is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "purple," taken from viola, the Latin word for the purple flower.
13,927 in the 1930s
#279
Pearl Pearl is a girl's name taken from the gem, and it charts in all seven markets we track.
13,792 in the 1930s
#280
Rosalie Rosalie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "rose."
13,763 in the 1930s
#281
Harriet Harriet is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "home ruler."
13,718 in the 1930s
#282
Leslie Leslie is a Scottish place name turned surname turned given name, and it has crossed sexes: about 71 percent of the births in our records are female, though the name began firmly male and remains so in Britain.
13,689 in the 1930s
#283
Annette Annette is a girl's name meaning grace, a French diminutive of Anne.
13,605 in the 1930s
#284
Joy Joy is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning exactly what it says, taken from the English word.
13,594 in the 1930s
#285
Naomi Naomi is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "pleasantness," from No'omi.
13,564 in the 1930s
#286
Charlene Charlene is a girl's name meaning free man, a feminine of Charles.
13,527 in the 1930s
#287
Sam Sam is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God has heard," a short form of Samuel.
13,496 in the 1930s
#288
Wallace Wallace means foreigner, and the irony is complete — it is the Anglo-Saxon word for the Britons who were there first, so Scotland's national hero carries a name meaning outsider in his own country.
13,342 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.