1940s Baby Names

4,671 names were given to children in the United States between 1940 and 1949, 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

#553
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.
5,686 in the 1940s
#557
Julius Julius means downy-bearded, and the family claimed descent from Venus — the Julii traced themselves to Iulus, son of Aeneas, which is the genealogy Virgil wrote the Aeneid to dignify.
5,602 in the 1940s
#558
Myron Myron means myrrh, and the resin was worth its weight in gold — traded up the incense routes from southern Arabia, used for embalming, and one of the three gifts in Matthew.
5,600 in the 1940s
#559
Nathan Nathan is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he gave," from Natan.
5,582 in the 1940s
#560
Salvatore Salvatore means savior, and it is a title rather than a description — Italian Catholic families gave it as a devotional name naming Christ's role directly, in the way Spanish families use Jesús.
5,576 in the 1940s
#561
Ron
5,568 in the 1940s
#562
Doyle
5,559 in the 1940s
#563
Bradley Bradley is a boy's name from an English place name meaning broad meadow.
5,543 in the 1940s
#566
Terrance Terrance respells Terrence, and the name descends from a Roman playwright born enslaved in North Africa — Terence was freed by his owner and his Latin became a school text for centuries.
5,512 in the 1940s
#569
Sherman
5,471 in the 1940s
#573
Dewey
5,410 in the 1940s
#574
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.
5,405 in the 1940s
#575
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.
5,393 in the 1940s
#580
Rodger
5,292 in the 1940s
#581
Darrel
5,291 in the 1940s
#584
Julian Julian is a boy's name of Latin origin, derived from the Roman family name Julius.
5,254 in the 1940s
#591
Nick Nick means victory of the people, and the compound is political rather than personal — the Greek joins victory to the citizen body, so it describes a public triumph and not an individual one.
5,120 in the 1940s
#592
Greg Greg means watchful, and the Greek is a command rather than a description — gregorein means stay awake, which early Christians took as an instruction about the second coming.
5,101 in the 1940s
#593
Isaac Isaac is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he laughs," from Yitzhak.
5,089 in the 1940s
#595
Clark Clark means a clergyman, and the job drifted — a clericus was in holy orders, but since the clergy were the ones who could write, the word slid across to mean anyone who kept records, which is what a clerk still is.
5,066 in the 1940s
#597
Gerry
5,037 in the 1940s
#601
Kenny Kenny sits on top of two different Gaelic names that English collapsed into one — Cináed, born of fire, and Coinneach, handsome.
5,009 in the 1940s
#603
Ivan Ivan is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious."
4,890 in the 1940s
#604
Ken
4,874 in the 1940s
#607
Jacob Jacob is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "supplanter" or "holder of the heel," from Ya'aqov.
4,853 in the 1940s
#611
Jeffery Jeffery is a boy's name whose first element is disputed, though the second means peace.
4,820 in the 1940s
#616
Woodrow
4,766 in the 1940s
#620
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.
4,691 in the 1940s
#621
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.
4,683 in the 1940s
#622
Tyrone Tyrone means Eoghan's land, an Irish county, and it reached American use almost entirely through one actor — Tyrone Power, whose grandfather took the name from the county his family came from.
4,669 in the 1940s
#625
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.
4,633 in the 1940s
#627
Phil
4,590 in the 1940s
#628
Forrest Forrest is one of only two names in this group birth records mark as rising, and it is on its second life — American births ran 490 in 2018 and 862 in 2025, having collapsed from a 1994 peak twenty years before.
4,586 in the 1940s
#631
Ervin
4,547 in the 1940s
#633
Raul Raul means wolf counsel, and it is the same name as Ralph and Rudolph — one Norse compound that entered Spanish, English and German separately and ended up looking like three different names.
4,526 in the 1940s
#634
Roberto Roberto means bright fame, the Italian and Spanish form of Robert, and both halves of the compound mean roughly the same thing — which is normal in Germanic naming rather than a redundancy.
4,518 in the 1940s
#635
Preston Preston means the priest's settlement — land held by the church rather than by a lord, which is why so many English places carry the name.
4,514 in the 1940s
#637
Elbert
4,466 in the 1940s
#646
Brent Brent means burned land, from ground cleared by fire — a place name recording a specific agricultural practice rather than a hill or a holy site, which are the two readings usually offered for it.
4,390 in the 1940s
#649
Wilson Wilson rose and fell with a presidency, and birth records show it plainly — 129 American births in 1911, then 496 in 1912, climbing to 1,381 by 1918 and back to 590 by 1920.
4,364 in the 1940s
#650
Felix Felix is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "lucky" or "fortunate."
4,350 in the 1940s
#652
Wade Wade means a river crossing, and there is a second Wade entirely — a Germanic sea giant from Old English legend whose story Chaucer refers to as though everyone knew it, and which is now lost.
4,293 in the 1940s
#653
Rickey Rickey means strong ruler, and its peak is the largest in this group — 3,818 American births in 1958, against 45 in the most recent year on record.
4,257 in the 1940s
#658
Francisco Francisco means Frenchman, and Saint Francis was given it as a nickname — his father traded in France and called him the little Frenchman.
4,192 in the 1940s
#659
Lance Lance does not mean a spear.
4,184 in the 1940s
#668
Pedro Pedro means stone, and the name records a nickname Jesus gave — Simon was renamed Cephas in Aramaic, which Greek translated as Petros, so the pun on rock survives through three languages.
4,088 in the 1940s
#669
Sheldon
4,057 in the 1940s
#671
Eldon
4,046 in the 1940s

What Made a 1940s Name

Children in the United States were registered with it between 1940 and 1949. 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.