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 1,804th 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 2,217th in England and Wales and 2,469th 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. It is 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

Children in the United States were registered with it between 1940 and 1949. A name's position here is how many of them were.

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.