1940s Baby Names

7,547 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

#100
Lois Lois is a girl's name that appears once in the New Testament, in a letter naming Timothy's grandmother, and its meaning has never been established.
57,142 in the 1940s
#103
Gail Gail is a girl's name meaning my father rejoices, clipped from Abigail.
55,157 in the 1940s
#104
Christine Christine is a girl's name from the Latin for a follower of Christ, the French form of Christina.
54,739 in the 1940s
#105
Diana Diana is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "divine" or "heavenly," the Roman goddess of the hunt and the moon.
53,853 in the 1940s
#108
Rose Rose is a girl's name of Latin origin naming the flower, from rosa.
51,871 in the 1940s
#109
Joanne Joanne is a girl's name meaning God is gracious, one of the many feminines of John.
51,776 in the 1940s
#110
Wanda Wanda is a girl's name from Polish, borne by a legendary queen who drowned herself in the Vistula rather than marry a German prince.
50,949 in the 1940s
#112
Carole Carole is a girl's name meaning free man, the French spelling of Carol.
50,464 in the 1940s
#114
Rita Rita is a girl's name meaning pearl, clipped from the end of Margarita rather than the front.
49,992 in the 1940s
#116
Charlotte Charlotte is a girl's name of French origin meaning "free man," the feminine form of Charles, itself from the Germanic name Karl.
49,646 in the 1940s
#119
Jo Jo is a name serving as the short form of Joanne, Josephine and Joan for women and Joseph for men.
48,722 in the 1940s
#120
Evelyn Evelyn is a girl's name of English and French origin meaning "desired" or "wished for".
48,330 in the 1940s
#121
Geraldine Geraldine was invented in a 1537 love poem — the Earl of Surrey coined it for Lady Elizabeth FitzGerald, calling her the Fair Geraldine.
48,136 in the 1940s
#124
Jacqueline Jacqueline is a girl's name, the French feminine of Jacques, and it inherits the meaning supplanter from Jacob.
45,680 in the 1940s
#125
Ellen Ellen is a girl's name of Greek origin, a medieval English form of Helen whose meaning has never been settled.
45,550 in the 1940s
#126
Sally Sally is a girl's name meaning princess, a pet form of Sarah reached by medieval rhyming.
45,495 in the 1940s
#127
Rebecca Rebecca is a girl's name of Hebrew origin whose meaning is unsettled, and the standard gloss involves a rope for tying cattle.
45,427 in the 1940s
#128
Kathryn Kathryn is a girl's name, the y-spelling of Katherine, and it inherits that name's genuinely unknown meaning.
44,683 in the 1940s
#131
Deborah Deborah is a girl's name from the Hebrew for bee, borne by the only woman to lead Israel as a judge.
44,140 in the 1940s
#136
Norma Norma is a girl's name that appears to have been invented for an opera — Bellini's Norma of 1831 — and it was the birth name of Marilyn Monroe, who appears elsewhere in these pages under the name that replaced it.
43,206 in the 1940s
#140
Suzanne Suzanne is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "lily," from shoshannah.
41,503 in the 1940s
#142
Anna Anna is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "grace" or "favor," the Greek and Latin form of Hannah.
41,444 in the 1940s
#143
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.
41,082 in the 1940s
#144
Patsy Patsy serves both Patricia and Patrick, and it is 94 percent female in our records — the male use survives mainly in Ireland, where Patsy is still an ordinary man's name rather than a woman's name at all.
40,905 in the 1940s
#145
Darlene Darlene is a girl's name built from the English word darling, and it is one of a small group of American twentieth-century coinages that used the -ene ending.
40,461 in the 1940s
#146
Joann Joann is a girl's name meaning God is gracious, a simplified spelling of Joanna.
40,142 in the 1940s
#147
Sarah Sarah is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "princess" or "noblewoman."
40,127 in the 1940s
#148
Katherine Katherine is a girl's name whose meaning is not settled.
40,042 in the 1940s
#153
Paula Paula is a girl's name from the Latin for small or humble, the feminine of Paul.
39,152 in the 1940s
#154
Annie Annie is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "grace" or "favor."
38,956 in the 1940s
#155
Louise Louise is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior," the French feminine form of Louis.
38,896 in the 1940s
#156
Roberta Roberta is a girl's name meaning bright fame, the feminine of Robert.
38,203 in the 1940s
#161
Sylvia Sylvia is a girl's name from the Latin for a forest, and the mother of Rome's founders bore it — Rhea Silvia, who was made a Vestal Virgin so she could not produce heirs.
37,422 in the 1940s
#168
Anne Anne is a girl's name from the Hebrew Hannah, meaning favor or grace.
36,219 in the 1940s
#170
Theresa Theresa is a girl's name of uncertain meaning, the German and English spelling of Teresa.
35,894 in the 1940s
#171
Maria Maria is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, the Latin and Greek form of Miryam.
35,876 in the 1940s
#172
Sheila Sheila is the Irish form of Cecilia, meaning blind — and parents outside Ireland should know it became Australian slang for a woman in the nineteenth century, which is why it barely charts there.
35,830 in the 1940s
#174
Laura Laura is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "laurel," the tree whose leaves crowned Roman victors and poets.
35,176 in the 1940s
#175
Kathy Kathy is a girl's name, the pet form of Katherine, and it inherits that name's genuinely unknown meaning.
34,844 in the 1940s
#176
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.
34,803 in the 1940s
#179
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.
34,478 in the 1940s
#181
Rosemary Rosemary is not Rose and Mary joined together — it is the herb, from a Latin phrase meaning dew of the sea.
34,382 in the 1940s
#184
Glenda Glenda is a twentieth-century Welsh invention rather than a traditional name — it joins two ordinary Welsh adjectives, and it does not appear in the historical record before about 1900.
33,465 in the 1940s
#185
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.
33,379 in the 1940s
#186
Dolores Dolores is a girl's name meaning sorrows — taken from a title of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, which counts seven specific griefs.
33,330 in the 1940s
#187
Mildred Mildred is a girl's name from Old English elements meaning gentle strength, and it is among the least fashionable names of the twentieth century — yet our data marks it reviving, ninety years after its 1920 peak.
33,212 in the 1940s
#188
Lorraine Lorraine is a girl's name from the French region, whose own name means the kingdom of Lothair — a Frankish king's realm that was carved out of Charlemagne's empire and slowly disappeared.
33,183 in the 1940s
#189
Marjorie Marjorie is a girl's name meaning pearl, an English form of Margaret whose modern spelling was pulled toward the herb marjoram by nothing more than a coincidence of sound.
32,978 in the 1940s

What made a 1940s name

Nothing about the sound of it. A name is on this page because children in the United States were registered with it between 1940 and 1949, and its position is simply how many. Every list of "1940s 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.