Main Task - name research

To research what names are male and female characters should have, I looked up the most popular boys and girls names in American in the 1940s.
The top ten boys names were:

1) James
2) John
3) Richard
4) Charles
5) Michael
6) Larry
7) Joseph
8) George
9) Paul
10) Frank

The top ten girls names were:
1) Mary
2) Barbara
3) Carol
4) Nancy
5) Rita
6) Betty
7) Margaret
8) Judy
9) Donna
10) Martha

We decided to go for Jim for the male protagonist as it was a common shortening of James in the 1940s. It is quite young sounding and has connotations of youth and familiarity, which will suggest that underneath his cool exterior he is a nice man who is being played by our female lead.
For the female protagonist we choose the name Rita as we liked it the best out of the list. It sounds a bit exotic and has connotations of femme fatale characters such as the roles played by the 1940s film star Rita Hayworth.