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

#337
Ted Ted is a boy's name that serves two unrelated names at once, and it exists because medieval English moved the n from "mine Edward."
13,052 in the 1940s
#338
Harriet Harriet is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "home ruler."
12,943 in the 1940s
#339
Carmen Carmen has two unrelated sources — the Latin word for a song, and a Spanish Marian title from Mount Carmel in Israel.
12,912 in the 1940s
#340
Dwight Dwight descends from Dionysus, the Greek god of wine — through the medieval woman's name Diot, a pet form of Dionysia, which is an unusually indirect route for a masculine surname.
12,887 in the 1940s
#341
Claude Claude is a name from a Roman family name meaning lame, one of very few widely used names with an unflattering literal sense.
12,886 in the 1940s
#342
Regina Regina is the Latin word for a queen, taken unchanged, and it is still the legal abbreviation in British courts — every criminal case against a defendant is formally Regina versus the accused.
12,757 in the 1940s
#343
Wesley Wesley is a boy's name of English origin meaning "western meadow," from the Old English west and leah.
12,614 in the 1940s
#344
Rosalie Rosalie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "rose."
12,611 in the 1940s
#345
Alma Alma is a girl's name with several competing origins: "nourishing" in Latin, "soul" in Spanish, and "young woman" in Hebrew.
12,551 in the 1940s
#346
Sam Sam is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God has heard," a short form of Samuel.
12,456 in the 1940s
#347
Neil Neil means champion or cloud, from Irish, and it traveled to Iceland with the Vikings and back to England with the Normans — so the English Neil arrived by way of Scandinavia and France.
12,444 in the 1940s
#348
Angela Angela is a girl's name from the Greek for messenger, the word that also gives us angel.
12,293 in the 1940s
#349
Donnie Donnie ranks 563rd in Ireland and 1804th in the United States, so the country with a fraction of the births ranks it three times higher — a pattern we see when a name goes home.
12,291 in the 1940s
#350
Vera Vera is a girl's name with two origins that both work. In Russian it means "faith"; in Latin vera means "true" — and unusually for such a pair, the two senses reinforce rather than contradict each other.
12,223 in the 1940s
#351
Scott Scott is a boy's name meaning a Scot, from the surname given to people from Scotland.
12,192 in the 1940s
#352
Stephanie Stephanie is a girl's name from the Greek for crown or garland, the feminine of Stephen.
11,953 in the 1940s
#353
Marianne Marianne is the personification of the French Republic, and her bust stands in every town hall in France — so the name carries a civic weight in one market that it has nowhere else.
11,952 in the 1940s
#354
Jill Jill is a girl's name, a medieval short form of Gillian, and it is half of the oldest surviving English nursery rhyme pair.
11,890 in the 1940s
#355
Mattie Mattie serves two entirely unrelated names — Martha, which is Aramaic for a lady, and Matilda, which is Germanic for might in battle.
11,852 in the 1940s
#356
Minnie Minnie Mouse did not make Minnie popular.
11,811 in the 1940s
#357
Dave Dave ranks 2217th in England and Wales and 2469th in the United States, so the short form outranks its American peak market in a country that never recorded more than fifteen in a year.
11,767 in the 1940s
#358
Michele Michele is a girl's name, the single-l spelling of Michelle, from a Hebrew question meaning who is like God.
11,734 in the 1940s
#359
Caroline Caroline is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "free man," the French feminine of Charles by way of the Latin Carolus.
11,638 in the 1940s
#360
Veronica Veronica is a girl's name from a Latin phrase meaning true image, and the saint behind it was invented to explain a relic — the cloth came first, and the woman was named after it.
11,540 in the 1940s
#361
Wallace Wallace means foreigner, and the irony is complete — it is the Anglo-Saxon word for the Britons who were there first, so Scotland's national hero carries a name meaning outsider in his own country.
11,532 in the 1940s
#362
Rosie Rosie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "rose."
11,496 in the 1940s
#363
Patty Patty belonged to Martha before it belonged to Patricia — the pet form was reassigned in the twentieth century, one of several nicknames in English that quietly changed parents.
11,476 in the 1940s
#364
Kevin Kevin is a boy's name of Irish origin meaning "gentle birth," and its saint founded Glendalough and by tradition lived to 120.
11,388 in the 1940s
#365
Stella Stella is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "star."
11,383 in the 1940s
#366
Elsie Elsie is a girl's name that began as a Scottish short form of Elspeth, itself a Scottish form of Elizabeth.
11,285 in the 1940s
#367
Bessie Bessie is a girl's name meaning God is my oath, a pet form of Elizabeth.
11,101 in the 1940s
#368
Carrie Carrie is a girl's name, a pet form of Caroline meaning free man through Charles.
11,049 in the 1940s
#369
Elmer Elmer means noble and famous, and its American popularity is traceable to two brothers — the Ebenezer and Jonathan Elmer who signed early revolutionary documents, after whom patriotic families went on to name sons.
11,034 in the 1940s
#370
Hugh Hugh is a boy's name from a Germanic word for mind or spirit, brought to Britain by the Normans.
11,019 in the 1940s
#371
Rosemarie Rosemarie looks like Rose plus Marie, and as a name it is — but the herb rosemary has nothing to do with either, and the resemblance is one of the neatest coincidences in naming.
10,843 in the 1940s
#372
Sheryl Sheryl respells Cheryl, which is itself a twentieth-century invention — it appears in American records around 1920 with no traceable parent, and the meanings offered for it were supplied afterwards.
10,775 in the 1940s
#373
Juan Juan is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious."
10,746 in the 1940s
#374
Maurice Maurice is a boy's name from a Latin word meaning a Moor, originally describing someone from Roman North Africa. Our data marks it reviving, and it peaked in 1920 — a century-long gap of the same kind we see in Walter and Frances.
10,729 in the 1940s
#375
Micheal Micheal is a boy's name of Hebrew origin whose full form is a rhetorical question — who is like God?
10,716 in the 1940s
#376
Jacquelyn Jacquelyn means supplanter, and the chain is long — it is an American respelling of Jacqueline, the French feminine of Jacques, which is James, which is Jacob.
10,696 in the 1940s
#377
Jennifer Jennifer is a girl's name, the Cornish form of the Welsh Gwenhwyfar, the name of King Arthur's queen.
10,691 in the 1940s
#378
Willard Willard means bold desire, and both halves are Germanic words about force of will — it is a surname from a personal name, and its American use is almost entirely nineteenth-century onward.
10,669 in the 1940s
#379
Sidney Sidney is a name of Old English origin meaning "wide meadow."
10,559 in the 1940s
#380
Claire Claire is a girl's name of French origin meaning "clear" or "bright," from the Latin clarus.
10,497 in the 1940s
#381
Colleen Colleen means girl in Irish, and it is barely used in Ireland — it is an Irish-American name rather than an Irish one.
10,478 in the 1940s
#382
Bonita
10,405 in the 1940s
#383
Marshall Marshall began as a stable hand — the word meant a horse servant, and it climbed to become the highest rank in several armies.
10,368 in the 1940s
#384
Frankie Frankie is a name of Germanic origin meaning "free man" or "Frenchman."
10,365 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.