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.

  • #12,516
    Hooper
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,517
    Chung
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,523
    Ezel
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,529
    Jessup
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,531
    Hyram
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,538
    Waitman
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,540
    Travers
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,542
    Minard
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,543
    Cornelis
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,544
    Broward
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,547
    Abb
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,548
    Horst
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,550
    Goree
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,551
    Waid
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,552
    Carzell
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,553
    Grenville
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,555
    Clendon
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,558
    Eliud
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,559
    Phyllip
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,560
    Jorgen
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,561
    Heliodoro
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,562
    Arto
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,563
    Stone
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,565
    Brutus
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,569
    Trafton
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,572
    Christino
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,578
    Hurston
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,579
    Clarnece
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,582
    Ott
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,583
    Nero
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,584
    Richy
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,586
    Manton
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,597
    Gonsalo
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,601
    Hurl
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,602
    Bjorn
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,604
    Avan
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,606
    Tunis
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,608
    Greely
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,611
    Nesbitt
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,613
    Bond
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,616
    Standford
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,618
    Stiles
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,621
    Gehrig
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,628
    Lantz
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,629
    Jams
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,631
    Deforrest
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,632
    Grantland
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years
  • #12,635
    Nikolas
    5 in the 1940s 1 of 10 years

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.