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Baby name trends come and go, but many classics have real staying power.
Looking at the most popular baby names of the 1930s, you'll find a combination of once-hot choices that now sound outdated (like Betty and Eugene) and names that a lot of parents are still choosing for their children (shout out to the Catherines and Williams we know).
The Social Security Administration keeps lists of the most popular names for every year and decade since the 1880s. Without further ado, here are the top baby names for girls and boys born in the 1930s.
Girls
- Mary
- Betty
- Barbara
- Shirley
- Patricia
- Dorothy
- Joan
- Margaret
- Nancy
- Helen
- Carol
- Joyce
- Doris
- Ruth
- Virginia
- Marilyn
- Elizabeth
- Jean
- Frances
- Beverly
- Lois
- Alice
- Donna
- Martha
- Dolores
- Janet
- Phyllis
- Norma
- Carolyn
- Evelyn
- Gloria
- Anna
- Marie
- Ann
- Mildred
- Rose
- Peggy
- Geraldine
- Catherine
- Judith
- Louise
- Janice
- Marjorie
- Annie
- Ruby
- Eleanor
- Jane
- Sandra
- Irene
- Wanda
Boys
- Robert
- James
- John
- William
- Richard
- Charles
- Donald
- George
- Thomas
- Joseph
- David
- Edward
- Ronald
- Paul
- Kenneth
- Frank
- Raymond
- Jack
- Harold
- Billy
- Gerald
- Walter
- Jerry
- Joe
- Eugene
- Henry
- Bobby
- Arthur
- Carl
- Larry
- Ralph
- Albert
- Willie
- Fred
- Michael
- Lawrence
- Harry
- Roy
- Howard
- Norman
- Roger
- Daniel
- Louis
- Earl
- Gary
- Clarence
- Anthony
- Francis
- Wayne
- Marvin
