Name Legacy

Baby names in Delaware, 1940s

1940–1949 · 50,020 recorded births

John was the most common name given in Delaware across the 1940s, with 1,958 births in the decade. The state recorded 50,020 births in total over those years.

Most distinctive to Delaware 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
Francis289
Preston34
Joanne262
Deborah224
Roland72
Harry264
Franklin96
Constance138

Top 25 in the 1940s

RankNameBirths
#1John1,958
#2William1,873
#3Robert1,823
#4James1,708
#5Mary1,299
#6Barbara1,162
#7Richard1,099
#8Charles999
#9Patricia966
#10David891
#11Joseph855
#12Thomas849
#13Linda768
#14Carol662
#14George662
#16Nancy641
#17Ronald624
#18Margaret607
#19Sandra598
#20Donald563
#21Edward508
#22Michael505
#23Susan469
#24Joyce441
#25Paul436

Other decades in Delaware

All Delaware 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