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

#190
Sherry Sherry is a girl's name that appears to have been taken from the wine, whose own name is a corruption of the Spanish town Jerez.
32,947 in the 1940s
#191
Anita Anita is a girl's name, the Spanish diminutive of Ana, meaning grace.
32,646 in the 1940s
#192
Dianne Dianne means divine, from the Roman goddess of the hunt — and Diana was originally a woodland deity of the Latin countryside, identified with the Greek Artemis only later and never completely.
32,378 in the 1940s
#193
Ruby Ruby is a girl's name of Latin origin naming the red gemstone, from ruber, meaning red.
32,140 in the 1940s
#195
Irene Irene is a girl's name from the Greek word for peace, and the name of the goddess who personified it.
31,968 in the 1940s
#198
Juanita Juanita is a girl's name meaning God is gracious, the Spanish diminutive of Juana.
30,602 in the 1940s
#199
Maureen Maureen is the Irish Máirín, a diminutive of Máire, which is itself the Irish form of Mary.
30,324 in the 1940s
#200
Loretta Loretta comes from an Italian shrine, not from the laurel — Loreto is the town where the Holy House of Nazareth was said to have been carried by angels.
30,204 in the 1940s
#201
Jeanne Jeanne is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious," the French feminine of Jean.
30,203 in the 1940s
#203
Constance Constance is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "steadfastness," one of the abstract virtue names the early Church favored.
30,007 in the 1940s
#205
Marlene Marlene was invented by the woman who made it famous — Marie Magdalene Dietrich contracted her own two names into one.
29,371 in the 1940s
#206
Arlene Arlene has no established origin at all — it appears in the nineteenth century with no traceable parent name, and the Irish pledge reading usually given for it belongs to a different name entirely.
29,175 in the 1940s
#210
Delores Delores means sorrows, and it is a Marian title rather than a wish — Our Lady of Sorrows, named for the seven griefs of the Virgin, which is why a name meaning pain was ever given.
28,617 in the 1940s
#212
Julia Julia is a girl's name of Latin origin, the feminine of the Roman family name Julius.
28,017 in the 1940s
#213
Lynda Lynda means lime tree, from Spanish and Germanic roots that disagree — the pretty reading comes from the Spanish linda, and the tree from a Germanic element, and neither is settled.
28,010 in the 1940s
#214
Marsha Marsha is a phonetic respelling of Marcia, and the name underneath is dedicated to Mars — the same god who gives his name to March, when the Roman year and the campaigning season both began.
27,475 in the 1940s
#215
Charlene Charlene is a girl's name meaning free man, a feminine of Charles.
26,850 in the 1940s
#222
June June is a girl's name of Latin origin taken from the month, which is named for the goddess Juno — the queen of the Roman gods and the protector of marriage and childbirth.
25,451 in the 1940s
#224
Jeanette Jeanette means God is gracious, a French double diminutive of Jeanne.
24,809 in the 1940s
#225
Edna Edna is a girl's name from a Hebrew word meaning delight, and it shares its root with Eden.
24,790 in the 1940s
#228
Josephine Josephine is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he will add," the French feminine form of Joseph.
24,424 in the 1940s
#231
Eleanor Eleanor is a girl's name that traces back to Eleanor of Aquitaine, the twelfth-century queen of France and later England, whose own name, Aliénor, is widely explained as "the other Aenor," distinguishing her from her mother, also named Aenor.
23,837 in the 1940s
#232
Yvonne Yvonne is a girl's name from a Germanic word for the yew tree, by way of Breton.
23,762 in the 1940s
#235
Vicki Vicki means victory, shortened from Victoria — and Victoria was a rare name in Britain before the queen, not a traditional one she happened to carry.
23,538 in the 1940s
#237
Vivian Vivian is a name of Latin origin meaning "alive" or "lively," from vivus.
23,169 in the 1940s
#239
Emma Emma is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "whole" or "universal," from the element ermen, found in older names such as Ermintrude.
22,901 in the 1940s
#242
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.
22,514 in the 1940s
#244
Lillian Lillian is a girl's name usually explained as an elaboration of Lily, from the Latin lilium, and sometimes as a variant of Elizabeth by way of the medieval pet form Lilian.
22,405 in the 1940s
#245
Edith Edith is a girl's name of Old English origin meaning "prosperous in war."
22,231 in the 1940s
#246
Pauline Pauline is a girl's name from the Latin for small or humble, the feminine of Paul.
21,999 in the 1940s
#249
Wilma Wilma means resolute protection, and The Flintstones did nothing for it.
21,320 in the 1940s
#255
Victoria Victoria is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "victory."
20,805 in the 1940s
#256
Ethel Ethel is a girl's name from an Old English word meaning noble, and it is not a name in its own right in that language — it is the first half of longer names like Ethelred, cut off and used alone.
20,688 in the 1940s
#257
Lucille Lucille is a girl's name from the Latin for light, given to children born at daybreak.
20,526 in the 1940s
#258
Florence Florence is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "blossoming" or "flourishing."
20,480 in the 1940s
#259
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.
20,355 in the 1940s
#261
Sara Sara is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "princess" or "noblewoman."
20,335 in the 1940s
#262
Thelma Thelma is a girl's name invented for a novel in 1887, and the Greek word it was probably built from means "will" or "volition."
20,333 in the 1940s
#265
Clara Clara is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "bright" or "clear," from clarus.
20,104 in the 1940s
#266
Audrey Audrey is a girl's name of Old English origin meaning "noble strength," from Æthelthryth.
20,013 in the 1940s
#268
Grace Grace is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "favor" or "blessing," from gratia.
19,443 in the 1940s
#270
Teresa Teresa is a girl's name whose meaning is genuinely uncertain, though harvester is the usual reading.
19,374 in the 1940s
#273
Claudia Claudia means lame, and it comes from one of Rome's most powerful families.
19,256 in the 1940s
#274
Annette Annette is a girl's name meaning grace, a French diminutive of Anne.
19,249 in the 1940s
#276
Gladys Gladys is a girl's name from Welsh, usually taken as a form of Claudia — which would give it the meaning lame.
19,125 in the 1940s
#277
Julie Julie is a girl's name, the French form of Julia, from a Roman family name of uncertain origin.
19,079 in the 1940s
#279
Gwendolyn Gwendolyn means white ring or blessed ring, from Welsh, and the second element is genuinely a ring — a torc or armlet, which was the standard Celtic mark of rank.
18,407 in the 1940s
#281
Priscilla Priscilla means ancient or venerable, and it is a diminutive — so the name literally reads as little old one, which was a mark of respect rather than an insult.
18,165 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.