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Barnaby

#12,269 in 2025Boys' name

Young warrior + rule

Barnaby has been given to 380 babies in the U.S. since 1953. In 2025 it ranked #12,269 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1974, with 19 recorded.

Babies named Barnaby, 2025

1 in 663,000

Barnaby over time, 1880–2025

Boys
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Barnaby: meaning, origin, and history

Young warrior + rule

Hebrew

What Barnaby means

Barnaby means “young warrior + rule”, associated with beorn and wealdan.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

* English surname of Aramaic origin, from בַּר נְבִיָּא (bar nəḇiyyā, literally “prophet’s son”). * Also as an English surname, from Old English Beornwald, from beorn (“young warrior”) + wealdan (“rule”) + Old Norse býr (“farmstead”).

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Barnaby (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Barnaby is used in English. Its origins include Hebrew.

Barnaby comes through Old English Beornwald and Old Norse býr.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Barnabas.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 380 boys were recorded with the name Barnaby between 1953 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 19 in 1974; its best national rank was #2,202 in 1974.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #12,239 in 2020 to #12,269 in 2025.

How common is Barnaby?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 342,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#12,269
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
459,581 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Barnaby 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 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 459,581 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Barnaby. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Barnabys were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Barnaby was born before 1979 — so the typical Barnaby is around 46 today.

Median birth year
1979
About 46 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
32.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
24.7%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
380
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 32.4% of all recorded uses (123).

Is Barnaby 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
−2,244
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−30
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
26.3%
Peak was 1974 (19)
Years since peak
51
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
29.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,202
1974

Spellings of Barnaby

Barnaby is not the most common spelling — Barney is, with 81.3% against Barnaby's 1.9%.

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 Barnaby is used

Across 1910–2025, Barnaby was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 2,796,049 across all states with data. It was least common in New York (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2New York1 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. Barnaby has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Barnaby around the world

Where Barnaby 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
    1996–2025
    #185
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1980–2025
    #647
    in 2025
  • South Australia
    1955–2013
    #754
    in 2013

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.

Barnaby by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#12,269
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 30
Best rank ever
#2,202
1974
Peak year
1974
19 that year
First recorded
1953
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
380
Count in 2025
5

Names similar to Barnaby

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

BarkleyBarakaBartoloBarackBarnabasBarnesBarkonBartoszBarlowBarretBarnardBarkotBarrenBarclayBaranBaraaBaruchBarakBarnettBarnieBartlettBarnetBarnellBarett

Sibling names for Barnaby

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 Barnaby

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