Name Legacy

Baby names in California, 1940s

1940–1949 · 1,754,887 recorded births

Robert was the most common name given in California across the 1940s, with 48,430 births in the decade. The state recorded 1,754,887 births in total over those years.

Most distinctive to California in the 1940s

Names given far more often here than nationally in these years. The multiplier is conservative — it is the low end of the plausible range, so a name carried by a handful of births does not outrank one carried by hundreds.

NameBirthsvs national
Armida248
Michiko22
Kimiko11
Reiko26
Takeshi8
Erlinda293
Salvador695
Mercy119

Top 25 in the 1940s

RankNameBirths
#1Robert48,430
#2John42,717
#3Linda38,487
#4James37,789
#5Richard35,781
#6Michael32,151
#7David29,611
#8William28,736
#9Mary28,493
#10Patricia24,635
#11Barbara22,347
#12Susan19,518
#13Ronald19,063
#14Gary18,999
#15Sharon18,511
#16Carol18,419
#17Thomas16,613
#18Sandra16,411
#19Charles16,299
#20Nancy15,178
#21Larry15,157
#22Dennis14,347
#23Donald14,320
#24Kathleen12,747
#25Karen12,272

Other decades in California

All California names, 2025

Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. State records begin in 1910. Names given to fewer than five babies in a state in a year are withheld at source. namelegacy.org