Top Baby Names in Alaska, 1940s — Most Popular Boys & Girls Names

The most popular baby names in Alaska from 1940 to 1949, ranked by total births during the decade.

What the Data Says About the 1940s in Alaska

During the 1940s (1940–1949), the Social Security Administration recorded 10,821 births across the top 50 boy and top 50 girl names in Alaska. The decade's leading boy name was John with 563 births, while Mary was the top girl name with 523 births. The top 50 boys in this decade collectively accounted for 6,093 births versus 4,728 for the top 50 girls — a common SSA pattern in which the boy-name pool is more concentrated among fewer high-frequency choices. These totals represent only names appearing five or more times per year in Alaska; rarer names fall below the SSA's privacy-disclosure threshold and are excluded.

The 1940s sits within a specific cultural window of U.S. naming history. Pre-1950 decades like the 1940s were characterized by strong traditional and biblical naming conventions, with a small cluster of dominant names (John, William, Mary, Elizabeth) capturing a disproportionate share of births. John and Mary leading Alaska during this window reflects how regional preferences interact with broader national trends.

Decade totals are computed by summing SSA state-year records for Alaska across all ten years of the 1940s. Because the SSA suppresses any name with fewer than five annual occurrences in a state, the true number of unique names given in Alaska during this decade is larger than what this page lists. The dataset also treats every spelling as a separate name — for example, Kayla and Kaylah are tracked independently — so combined-spelling totals would shift the rankings somewhat. This page is provided for informational and research purposes and does not constitute naming, legal, or genealogical advice.

← 1930s | All decades | 1950s →

Boy Top 50 Boy Names

Rank Name Births
1 John 563
2 Robert 431
3 James 397
4 William 337
5 David 320
6 Richard 285
7 Michael 267
8 Charles 214
9 Thomas 175
10 George 172
11 Joseph 156
12 Peter 154
13 Paul 139
14 Ronald 129
15 Donald 127
16 Frank 115
17 Larry 109
18 Kenneth 108
19 Gary 107
20 Edward 106
21 Daniel 101
22 Fred 88
23 Jerry 82
24 Dennis 80
25 Jack 76
26 Patrick 76
27 Walter 76
28 Harold 68
29 Douglas 67
30 Raymond 66
31 Gerald 57
32 Roy 57
33 Carl 56
34 Andrew 56
35 Lawrence 52
36 Roger 51
37 Steven 50
38 Albert 50
39 Henry 49
40 Stephen 47
41 Norman 45
42 Mike 44
43 Arthur 44
44 Joe 41
45 Bruce 39
46 Alfred 35
47 Allen 34
48 Wayne 33
49 Mark 31
50 Harry 31

Girl Top 50 Girl Names

Rank Name Births
1 Mary 523
2 Linda 250
3 Patricia 213
4 Barbara 183
5 Susan 165
6 Margaret 152
7 Carol 142
8 Sharon 135
9 Helen 130
10 Nancy 126
11 Karen 123
12 Elizabeth 113
13 Alice 109
14 Judith 108
15 Kathleen 108
16 Martha 101
17 Marie 100
18 Donna 99
19 Virginia 97
20 Dorothy 94
21 Judy 91
22 Sandra 89
23 Betty 81
24 Annie 78
25 Shirley 76
26 Janet 73
27 Anna 70
28 Marilyn 66
29 Katherine 65
30 Lucy 65
31 Jean 60
32 Ruth 57
33 Ann 55
34 Bonnie 54
35 Diane 52
36 Carolyn 51
37 Irene 51
38 Rose 50
39 Janice 49
40 Pamela 47
41 Evelyn 45
42 Sally 43
43 Christine 43
44 Pauline 38
45 Frances 38
46 Lois 36
47 Florence 35
48 Agnes 34
49 Sarah 34
50 Lorraine 31

Nearby Rankings

Related decade and state views for Alaska

Alaska, 1930s
Top 50 by decade
Alaska, 1950s
Top 50 by decade
All Alaska Decades
State-wide rollup
1940s National
Top U.S. decade names

Compare 1940s leaders: John vs Mary → or pick any two names →

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Baby Names — State-Level Files, 1910–2024 (ssa.gov).

Source: SSA Baby Names Methodology — names with 5 or more occurrences per state per year are included (ssa.gov/oact/babynames/limits.html).

Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sourced from official U.S. government datasets. See our methodology for details.