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

#241
Victor Victor is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "conqueror."
22,615 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
#243
Jessie Jessie is a name that arrives from two unrelated directions — the Scottish pet form of Janet, and a feminine of the Hebrew Jesse.
22,472 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
#247
Pat Pat is one of the most evenly divided names on this site — about 60 percent of the births in our records are female, because it shortens both Patricia and Patrick and neither side ever won.
21,637 in the 1940s
#248
Bob Bob comes from Robert, and the B is not a corruption but a system — medieval English made pet names by rhyming, which is why Rob gave Bob, Will gave Bill and Rick gave Dick.
21,430 in the 1940s
#249
Wilma Wilma means resolute protection, and The Flintstones did nothing for it.
21,320 in the 1940s
#250
Floyd Floyd is the same name as Lloyd, and the F is a mistake that stuck — English had no way to say the Welsh double L, so it substituted the closest sound it had, and the substitution became a separate name.
21,134 in the 1940s
#251
Lewis Lewis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior," the English form of Louis.
21,040 in the 1940s
#252
Clyde Clyde took nothing from Bonnie and Clyde.
20,964 in the 1940s
#253
Harvey Harvey is a boy's name of Breton origin meaning "battle worthy."
20,871 in the 1940s
#254
Alvin Alvin means elf-friend, from an Old English name that treats elves as beings whose favor was worth having.
20,835 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
#260
Craig Craig is a boy's name from the Gaelic word for a rock or crag, and one of the few names that is a plain landscape noun rather than a compound.
20,350 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
#263
Vernon Vernon is a Norman place name meaning a place of alders, from a Gaulish word — so a French town gave England a surname that America turned into a first name, three languages deep.
20,225 in the 1940s
#264
Billie Billie is a name of Germanic origin meaning "resolute protector."
20,113 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
#267
Charlie Charlie is a name of Germanic origin meaning "free man."
19,475 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
#269
Franklin Franklin means a freeholder — a man who owned his land but held no noble rank, a specific medieval class.
19,404 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
#271
Calvin Calvin is a boy's name of French origin meaning "little bald one," from the Latin calvus, bald.
19,339 in the 1940s
#272
Jon Jon is a boy's name meaning God is gracious, and it is both an English shortening of Jonathan and the standard Scandinavian and Catalan form of John — two routes to the same three letters.
19,271 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
#275
Bobbie Bobbie is 83 percent female in our records and England and Wales ranks it 523rd on 110 births — far above the United States at 2072nd, reversing what an American nickname-name would usually do.
19,230 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
#278
Jay Jay is a name serving as an initial-letter shortening for any J name, as a bird name, and as an Indian name meaning victory.
18,968 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
#280
Darrell Darrell does not mean beloved.
18,397 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
#282
Dan Dan means he judged, and it is a full Hebrew name in its own right before it is short for Daniel — one of Jacob's twelve sons, and the tribe that gave its name to the northern border of Israel.
18,073 in the 1940s
#283
Randall Randall is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning shield-wolf.
17,896 in the 1940s
#284
Allan Allan has no settled meaning at all — handsome, little rock and a deer are all proposed for the Breton original, and the name reached England through Brittany rather than through Ireland or Scotland at all.
17,866 in the 1940s
#285
Freddie Freddie is a name of Germanic origin meaning "peaceful ruler."
17,758 in the 1940s
#286
Esther Esther is a girl's name usually connected to the Persian word for star, and possibly to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar.
17,731 in the 1940s
#287
Joel Joel is a boy's name of Hebrew origin that joins two names for God, and the prophet's book supplied the line quoted at Pentecost.
17,658 in the 1940s
#288
Eva Eva is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "life" or "living."
17,656 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.