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Barclay

Boys' name

Birch + woodland, clearing

Barclay has been given to 978 babies in the U.S. since 1912. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1970, with 26 recorded.

Babies named Barclay, 2021

1 in 565,000

Barclay over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Barclay: meaning, origin, and history

Birch + woodland, clearing

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Barclay means

Barclay means “birch + woodland, clearing”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Barclay is used in English (Rare).

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈbɑɹ.kli/ and /ˈbɑː.kli/ for Barclay.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 954 boys were recorded with the name Barclay between 1912 and 2021. Its highest annual count was 26 in 1970; its best national rank was #1,561 in 1948.

In the United States, 24 girls were recorded with the name Barclay between 1969 and 1976. Its highest annual count was 9 in 1969; its best national rank was #5,082 in 1969.

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.

How common is Barclay?

Barclay had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2021, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2021
1 in 565,000
6 of 3,389,958 births
Among boys only
1 in 292,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2021
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
391,624 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Barclay sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2021 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 391,624 children born in 2021 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Barclay. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Barclays were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Barclay was born before 1961 — so the typical Barclay is around 64 today.

Median birth year
1961
About 64 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
15.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
6.1%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
623
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 15.4% of all recorded uses (147).

Is Barclay 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1970 (26)
Years since peak
55
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
25.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,561
1948

Spellings of Barclay

Barclay is not the most common spelling — Bartley is, with 67.0% against Barclay's 33.0%.

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 Barclay is used

Across 1910–2025, Barclay was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 3,486,540 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys 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. Barclay has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Barclay around the world

Where Barclay 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.

  • England & Wales
    1998–2021
    #4,789
    in 2021
  • Scotland
    1980–2019
    #464
    in 2019
  • South Australia
    1958–1984
    #455
    in 1984

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Barclay by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,561
1948
Peak year
1970
26 that year
First recorded
1912
Last recorded
2021
All-time count
954
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#5,082
1969
Peak year
1969
9 that year
First recorded
1969
Last recorded
1976
All-time count
24
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Barclay

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

BartoloBarnabyBarkleyBarretBarnabasBarnardBaruchBarakBarnettBarakaBarackNikolayBartleyFinlayBarrieBarnesBartlettBarnieFindlayBarkonBarronBarringtonBartoszBarbara

Sibling names for Barclay

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 Barclay

Top names of 1970, Barclay's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1948Boys' names starting with B