Name Legacy

Baby names in Mississippi, 1940s

1940–1949 · 508,119 recorded births

James was the most common name given in Mississippi across the 1940s, with 20,244 births in the decade. The state recorded 508,119 births in total over those years.

Most distinctive to Mississippi 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
Earlean27522×
Cleotha10122×
Ether4717×
Kattie17617×
Pearlean7115×
Prentiss9113×
Rubbie4112×
Myrtis18112×

Top 25 in the 1940s

RankNameBirths
#1James20,244
#2Mary16,533
#3Willie12,748
#4Robert11,887
#5John10,723
#6William9,087
#7Charles9,053
#8Betty6,758
#9Linda6,749
#10Dorothy6,585
#11Barbara6,069
#12Annie4,907
#13George4,730
#14Shirley4,544
#15Thomas4,277
#16Jerry4,190
#17Patricia4,079
#18David3,897
#19Joe3,754
#20Billy3,725
#21Martha3,648
#22Larry3,622
#23Henry3,348
#24Bobby3,328
#25Carolyn3,305

Other decades in Mississippi

All Mississippi 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