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Barbie

#4,276 in 2025Girls' name

Strange, foreign, through Barbara

Barbie has been given to 4,204 babies in the U.S. since 1936. In 2025 it ranked #4,276 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1964, with 190 recorded.

Babies named Barbie, 2025

1 in 100,000

Barbie over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Barbie: meaning, origin, and history

Strange, foreign, through Barbara

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Barbie means

Barbie belongs to the name family reached through Barbie → Barbara. Its meaning is “strange, foreign”.

Origin, language, and formation

Barbie is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Barbara.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Barbie is pronounced /ˈbɑɹbi/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,204 girls were recorded with the name Barbie between 1936 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 190 in 1964; its best national rank was #756 in 1964.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #4,899 in 2020 to #4,276 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #4,238 in 2015 to #4,276 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Barbie?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 100,000
33 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 48,700
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#4,276
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
69,634 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Barbie sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 69,634 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Barbie. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Barbies were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Barbie was born before 1972 — so the typical Barbie is around 53 today.

Median birth year
1972
About 53 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
32.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
17.2%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
4,054
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 32.0% of all recorded uses (1,346).

Is Barbie rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−1,148
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+623
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−38
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.97×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
17.4%
Peak was 1964 (190)
Years since peak
61
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
33.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#756
1964

Spellings of Barbie

Barbie is not the most common spelling — Marie is, with 45.2% against Barbie's 0.35%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Barbie is used

Across 1910–2025, Barbie was most concentrated in Pennsylvania — about 1 in 14,286 girls, against 1 in 79,459 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

07 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Pennsylvania1 in 14,286
  2. 2Texas1 in 50,000
  3. 3Alabama1 in 100,000
  4. 4California1 in 100,000
  5. 5Florida1 in 100,000
  6. 6Georgia1 in 100,000
  7. 7Illinois1 in 100,000
  8. 8Indiana1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Barbie has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Barbie around the world

Where Barbie ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • South Australia
    1968–1974
    #457
    in 1974

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Barbie

People whose public names include Barbie, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Barbie by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#4,276
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 623
Best rank ever
#756
1964
Peak year
1964
190 that year
First recorded
1936
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,204
Count in 2025
33

Names similar to Barbie

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

ColbieLibbieBarbraBarrieBarrettRubieShelbieKolbieBarbRobbieTobieBariAbbieBarryBarbarKelbieBarbiBarriGabbieBarkatKobieBaraahBobbieRubbie

Names with a curve like Barbie

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Barbie, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

KimberliDedraEvetteReneaVelvetMissyKimberlieMechelleLoriannDelisaLinetteBethann

Sibling names for Barbie

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Barbie

Top names of 1964, Barbie's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1964Girls' names starting with B