'nineteen-thirties' originates from Modern English, specifically formed by combining 'nineteen' and 'thirties'; 'nineteen' ultimately derives from Old English components (e.g. Old English 'nigenteoþa') meaning 'nine and ten', and 'thirty' derives from Old English 'þrītig' meaning 'three tens'.

'nineteen-thirties' changed from earlier numeric naming patterns where decades were called 'the thirties' or specified by century prefixes (for example 'nineteen-' to indicate 1900s); the explicit compound 'nineteen-twenties', 'nineteen-thirties' etc. became common in the 19th–20th centuries to denote decades in the 1900s.

Initially, constructions naming decades simply identified a group of ten years; 'nineteen-thirties' specifically denoted the years 1930–1939 and over time retained that same core meaning while also coming to evoke the historical, cultural, and political associations of that decade.