Official JPN data
Popular names of the 1940s
Six JPN tables for births in the 1940s: 10 boys’ and 10 girls’ names in each of the Malay, Chinese and Indian tables. Percentages are each name’s share of its table’s top-10 total.
- Top boy (Malay)
- Ismail
- Top girl (Malay)
- Fatimah
- Entries
- 60
- Highest share
- Subramaniam 25.5%
Popular names of the 1940s · Malaysia
The six JPN tables
Malay table · boys
- 1.Ismail 18.8% · 3,820
- 2.Ahmad 16.7% · 3,401
- 3.Abdullah 12.8% · 2,596
- 4.Ibrahim 10.1% · 2,047
- 5.Othman 8.4% · 1,704
- 6.Mohamad 8.2% · 1,665
- 7.Abu Bakar 7.3% · 1,492
- 8.Zakaria 6.8% · 1,385
- 9.Abdul Rahman 5.5% · 1,122
- 10.Hashim 5.5% · 1,112
Malay table · girls
- 1.Fatimah 23.4% · 6,036
- 2.Zainab 11.8% · 3,052
- 3.Halimah 9.6% · 2,488
- 4.Ramlah 9.5% · 2,463
- 5.Rokiah 9.5% · 2,452
- 6.Aminah 8.9% · 2,287
- 7.Azizah 7.4% · 1,916
- 8.Rahmah 7.1% · 1,828
- 9.Hasnah 6.6% · 1,693
- 10.Maimunah 6.2% · 1,610
Chinese table · boys
- 1.Tan 16.3% · 2,788
- 2.Lee 16.1% · 2,740
- 3.Wong 14.2% · 2,427
- 4.Lim 13.2% · 2,256
- 5.Chong 9.8% · 1,677
- 6.Ng 9.3% · 1,580
- 7.Chan 7.2% · 1,232
- 8.Chin 5.1% · 875
- 9.Yap 4.6% · 791
- 10.Ong 4.1% · 691
Chinese table · girls
- 1.Tan 16.7% · 3,150
- 2.Lee 15.4% · 2,908
- 3.Lim 13.4% · 2,524
- 4.Wong 12.1% · 2,283
- 5.Ng 9.0% · 1,691
- 6.Ah Moi 8.3% · 1,567
- 7.Chong 7.9% · 1,493
- 8.Chan 6.8% · 1,281
- 9.Ah Moy 5.1% · 965
- 10.Ah 5.1% · 962
Indian table · boys
- 1.Subramaniam 25.5% · 830
- 2.Muniandy 14.7% · 480
- 3.Krishnan 14.2% · 461
- 4.Ramasamy 9.7% · 316
- 5.Arumugam 8.5% · 278
- 6.Balakrishnan 6.5% · 213
- 7.Raman 5.6% · 182
- 8.Perumal 5.5% · 178
- 9.Supramaniam 5.0% · 163
- 10.Munusamy 4.8% · 155
Indian table · girls
- 1.Muniamah 22.1% · 456
- 2.Letchumy 12.9% · 266
- 3.Saroja 9.6% · 198
- 4.Saraswathy 9.4% · 194
- 5.Kamalam 9.0% · 186
- 6.Muniammah 9.0% · 186
- 7.Mariayee 7.9% · 163
- 8.Letchimy 6.9% · 143
- 9.Parvathy 6.5% · 135
- 10.Ramayee 6.5% · 135
Source: JPN via data.gov.my (CC BY 4.0) · malaysiannames.com
Generations: the 1940s vs the 1970s
How many names in each 1940s table were still listed 30 years later.
- Malay · boys
- 1 / 10 (Ismail)
- Malay · girls
- 1 / 10 (Azizah)
- Chinese · boys
- 0 / 10
- Chinese · girls
- 0 / 10
- Indian · boys
- 2 / 10 (Subramaniam, Muniandy)
- Indian · girls
- 2 / 10 (Letchumy, Saraswathy)
The Malay, Chinese and Indian tables are JPN’s own breakdown of the data. They describe the data, not people: anyone can bear the same name. In the Chinese tables the published entry is often a surname. Print this page for a six-table A4 poster. Source: JPN via data.gov.my (CC BY 4.0)
More from the JPN data
How to cite
Free to quote with a link to this page. Suggested citation:
MalaysianNames (malaysiannames.com). “Popular Names in Malaysia, 1940s: JPN Rankings”. https://malaysiannames.com/en/popular-names/decade/1940/. Updated . Data: JPN via data.gov.my (CC BY 4.0), last updated 2023-07-26.
Download the JPN top-10 tables we use (decade, table, sex, rank, name, count, share of the top-10 total):
Frequently asked questions
What does the NEW badge mean?
The name was not in the same table’s top 10 for the previous decade. It does not mean nobody bore the name before.
Why percentages, not counts?
Top-10 totals change a lot between decades and tables, so a share of that total compares more fairly. Raw counts show beside the percentage on wide screens.
Why is my name missing?
JPN publishes only the top 10 names per sex in each table. A name outside that list has no public figure, and we do not estimate one.