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

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

What the Data Says About the 1940s in Nevada

During the 1940s (1940–1949), the Social Security Administration recorded 16,318 births across the top 50 boy and top 50 girl names in Nevada. The decade's leading boy name was Robert with 774 births, while Linda was the top girl name with 594 births. The top 50 boys in this decade collectively accounted for 9,202 births versus 7,116 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 Nevada; 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. Robert and Linda leading Nevada during this window reflects how regional preferences interact with broader national trends.

Decade totals are computed by summing SSA state-year records for Nevada 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 Nevada 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 Robert 774
2 John 693
3 James 667
4 Richard 523
5 William 483
6 David 463
7 Michael 445
8 Gary 323
9 Ronald 283
10 Charles 269
11 Thomas 250
12 Donald 216
13 Larry 215
14 Dennis 204
15 Kenneth 203
16 George 200
17 Paul 156
18 Edward 132
19 Frank 132
20 Mike 127
21 Jerry 119
22 Joseph 118
23 Jack 113
24 Bruce 112
25 Bill 108
26 Daniel 106
27 Steven 103
28 Douglas 103
29 Jim 101
30 Terry 99
31 Raymond 95
32 Roger 94
33 Gerald 86
34 Stephen 85
35 Fred 81
36 Patrick 75
37 Roy 74
38 Don 71
39 Carl 71
40 Joe 70
41 Wayne 64
42 Lawrence 64
43 Tom 59
44 Eugene 56
45 Albert 56
46 Harry 54
47 Peter 53
48 Ralph 52
49 Danny 51
50 Leonard 51

Girl Top 50 Girl Names

Rank Name Births
1 Linda 594
2 Mary 458
3 Patricia 402
4 Barbara 339
5 Sharon 322
6 Sandra 293
7 Susan 266
8 Carol 265
9 Karen 238
10 Judy 219
11 Nancy 196
12 Donna 193
13 Kathleen 179
14 Judith 170
15 Margaret 139
16 Carolyn 132
17 Shirley 130
18 Betty 130
19 Bonnie 127
20 Janice 124
21 Diane 113
22 Janet 107
23 Pamela 104
24 Beverly 101
25 Marilyn 100
26 Cheryl 97
27 Joan 91
28 Dorothy 86
29 Virginia 86
30 Joyce 85
31 Gloria 80
32 Charlotte 76
33 Elizabeth 71
34 Diana 70
35 Kathryn 69
36 Darlene 67
37 Helen 65
38 Connie 64
39 Jean 64
40 Kathy 63
41 Ann 63
42 Frances 62
43 Jo 59
44 Vicki 58
45 Peggy 55
46 Gail 54
47 Katherine 51
48 Marie 47
49 Alice 47
50 Sue 45

Nearby Rankings

Related decade and state views for Nevada

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

Compare 1940s leaders: Robert vs Linda → 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.