1940s Baby Names
13,557 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.
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#1,107Lily Lily is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "lily flower," from lilium.1,511 in the 1940s
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#1,115Denver Denver is a unisex name of English origin meaning "the Danes' crossing".1,498 in the 1940s
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#1,121Isabelle Isabelle is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath."1,470 in the 1940s
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#1,126Dexter Dexter is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "right-handed" or "skilful."1,462 in the 1940s
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#1,128Olive Olive is a girl's name of Latin origin taken from the tree, whose name comes from oliva.1,461 in the 1940s
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#1,134Camilla Camilla is a girl's name of Latin origin naming a young attendant at a religious rite.1,441 in the 1940s
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#1,144Pablo Pablo is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "small" or "humble," the Spanish form of Paul.1,417 in the 1940s
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#1,149Evangeline Evangeline is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "bearer of good news."1,404 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 The statistics offices do not publish names given to very few children in a year, so a gap can also mean the count dropped below the threshold rather than to nothing.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.