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Popular Girl Names from the 1930s

1930s baby girl names

When expecting a baby girl, one of the most exciting things on your to-do list is picking a name for your little princess. But with so many options to choose from, you might need a little help to get started.

If you love retro names, the top names of the 1930s could be a good source of inspiration. Granted, some of the names topping the charts in the 1930s might sound a bit outdated to contemporary ears, but there are plenty of options that do sound perfectly baby-appropriate in 21st-century America.

First, let's have a look at the top 10 girl names of the 1930s, as ranked by the U.S. Social Security Administration which has been keeping records of American baby names for more than a hundred years. Note: The names marked with an asterisk (*) reached their pinnacle in the 30s, so they might channel the spirit of the decade particularly well.

Top 10 Girl Names of the 1930s

  1. Mary. Decade after decade, Mary ruled the playground in the first half of the 20th century. In the 1930s, the SSA registered nearly 600,000 newborns called Mary.
  2. Betty*. Today, baby Bettys are few and far between, but back in the 1930s, Betty was the second most popular choice for baby girls.
  3. Barbara. Barbara entered the Girls' Top 10 at #3 in the 1930s, and remained there throughout the 1940s and 50s.
  4. Shirley*. Peaking in popularity in the 1930s, Shirley strikes as one the decade's defining names.
  5. Patricia. To many ears, Patricia is the ultimate midcentury name, which is hardly surprising given that more than 450,000 babies were named Patricia in the fifties. But let's not forget that Patricia's run of popularity began long before that: from 1930 through 1939, for example, more than 220,000 American girls were given the name Patricia, making it the 5th most popular 1930s' name for girls.
  6. Dorothy. A clunky name best left on the shelf, or an overlooked vintage charmer? You decide.
  7. Joan*. Joan resided comfortably in the Top 10 during the 1930s, but it gradually lost its luster in the following decades and never made it back to the top of the charts again.
  8. Margaret. This classic has a beautiful meaning ('pearl') and boasts a wide range of nicknames including Maggie, Marge, Mags, Meg, Margo, Maisie, Peggy, and Daisy.
  9. Nancy. From 1930 through 1939, more than 140,000 American girls were given the name Nancy, enough to put it at #9 on this list.
  10. Helen. If you pick this one, your little one will have a ton of high-achieving namesakes to look up to: Helen Mirren, Helen Hunt, Helen Herron Taft...

Has nothing clicked yet? Then let's move on to the Top 100. The following list includes all the names that didn't make it to the Top 10 but that were among the 100 most popular girl names in the 1930s. And, if after checking out the list below you're still no closer to that perfect moniker, have a look at the our list of rare and unique-sounding girl names from the 1930s. Or, broaden your search to include the most popular girl's names from the 1920s or the top girl names of the 1940s.

More Girl Names That Were Popular in the 1930s