Recorded 1880–2025 · United States
Barney was most popular in 1919, when 304 American babies were given the name — ranking #693 that year. In 2025 it ranked #24,763, with 5 births. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 16,181 people named Barney.
The Social Security Administration’s records begin in 1880, and Barney is already there in that first year — so the name is older than the record and these figures cannot date it. It has been recorded in 134 of the 146 years since.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 16,181 American births named Barney between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 5,849 are estimated to be alive today.
5 American babies were named Barney in 2025, ranking #24,763 that year.
Barney is too rare for a direction to mean much. It averaged 6 births a year across 2021–2025 against 6 a year a decade earlier — at these counts a single baby moves the percentage, and any year under five births is withheld at source.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Across the whole record Barney is a boy’s name — 0.6% of the 16,181 Americans given it were girls and 99.4% were boys. In births since 2016 it is 0% girls and 100% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
Roughly 5,849 Americans named Barney are alive today — 36% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 68 years old, and half are between 58 and 76.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
See Barney on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org