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.

All Girls Boys Unisex

Rankings for

#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
#149
Melvin Melvin is a boy's name from a Scottish place name, and the gentle chieftain reading usually given for it is an invention — the source is a Norman family who took their name from Malleville in France.
39,544 in the 1940s
#150
Earl Earl is a boy's name taken from the English noble title, and it is the only rank in the British peerage with a native English name rather than a French one.
39,366 in the 1940s
#151
Allen Allen is a boy's name whose meaning is genuinely unknown — rock, handsome and deer have all been proposed from an unidentified Breton source.
39,266 in the 1940s
#152
Frederick Frederick is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "peaceful ruler."
39,200 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
#157
Bill Bill comes from William, and the B is the point — medieval English made pet names by rhyming, which is why Will became Bill, Rob became Bob and Rick became Dick.
37,848 in the 1940s
#158
Lee Lee is a name from the Old English word for a woodland clearing, and it is one of the most productive elements in English place names — the ending of Ashley, Bradley, Shirley and Beverly.
37,781 in the 1940s
#159
Eddie Eddie is a boy's name, the pet form of Edward or Edwin, meaning wealth.
37,452 in the 1940s
#160
Tommy Tommy is a boy's name of Aramaic origin meaning "twin."
37,422 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
#162
Phillip Phillip is a boy's name meaning lover of horses, the doubled-l spelling of Philip.
37,075 in the 1940s
#163
Marvin Marvin is a boy's name from the Welsh Merfyn, and the sea friend reading usually given for it is not supported — the Welsh elements point to marrow and eminent instead.
36,643 in the 1940s
#164
Don Don is a boy's name shortened from Donald, meaning world ruler.
36,422 in the 1940s
#165
Clarence Clarence is a boy's name taken from an English dukedom, itself named for a Suffolk town.
36,402 in the 1940s
#166
Steve Steve is a boy's name, the short form of Steven or Stephen, meaning crown or garland.
36,380 in the 1940s
#167
Barry Barry is a boy's name from an Irish surname generally traced to a word for a spear, though a Welsh island gives a competing route.
36,332 in the 1940s
#168
Anne Anne is a girl's name from the Hebrew Hannah, meaning favor or grace.
36,219 in the 1940s
#169
Glenn Glenn is a boy's name from the Gaelic word for a narrow valley, and like Craig and Dale it is a plain landscape noun.
35,953 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
#173
Jim Jim is a boy's name meaning supplanter, shortened from James — which is the same name as Jacob, split into two by Latin.
35,754 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
#177
Mike Mike is a boy's name, the short form of Michael, from a Hebrew question meaning who is like God.
34,774 in the 1940s
#178
Andrew Andrew is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "manly" or "brave," from andreios, from aner, a man.
34,768 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
#180
Jeffrey Jeffrey is a boy's name from Germanic roots whose first element is genuinely disputed, though the second means peace.
34,463 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
#182
Leslie Leslie is a Scottish place name turned surname turned given name, and it has crossed sexes: about 71 percent of the births in our records are female, though the name began firmly male and remains so in Britain.
34,245 in the 1940s
#183
Leroy Leroy is a boy's name that is simply the French for the king, taken as one word.
34,049 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
#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

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.