Barnard

Boys' name

Bear + hard, brave, through Bernhard

Barnard has been given to 895 babies in the U.S. since 1891. 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 1963, with 25 recorded.

Babies named Barnard, 1998

1 in 613,000

Barnard over time, 1880–2025

Boys

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Barnard: meaning, origin, and history

Bear + hard, brave, through Bernhard

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Barnard means

Barnard belongs to the name family reached through Barnard → Bernhard → *Bernuharduz. Its meaning is “bear + hard, brave”.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

English, Dutch, and French surname, variant of Bernard. This sense is also found in Slavic borrowings (Polish, Slovenian, Czech). Also Americanized from German Bernhard, Bernhardt, of the same meaning.

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

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Barnard is used in English.

Barnard comes through German Bernhard.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Bernard, Bernhard and *Bernuharduz.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Barnard is pronounced /ˈbɑɹnɑɹd/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 895 boys were recorded with the name Barnard between 1891 and 1998. Its highest annual count was 25 in 1963; its best national rank was #980 in 1891.

How common is Barnard?

Barnard had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1998, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1998: 1 in 613,000; 6 of 3,677,189 births
Among boys only: 1 in 318,000; <0.01% of boys
Rank, 1998: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 424,807 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Barnard 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 1998 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 424,807 children born in 1998 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Barnard. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Barnards were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Barnard was born before 1948 — so the typical Barnard is around 77 today.

Median birth year: 1948; About 77 years old
Biggest decade: 1960s; 19.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 10.7%; Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950: 428; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1960s — 19.9% of all recorded uses (178).

Is Barnard 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 1963 (25)
Years since peak: 62; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Shifting; 16.9% average annual change
Best rank ever: #980; 1891

Spellings of Barnard

Barnard is not the most common spelling — Bernard is, with 82.4% against Barnard's 0.37%.

Bernard82.4%200,087
Maynard6.1%14,918
Bernardo4.6%11,175
Barbara1.7%4,136
Raynard1.3%3,061
Vernard0.85%2,066
Bernhard0.69%1,671
Benard0.68%1,644

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 Barnard is used

Across 1910–2025, Barnard was most concentrated in Georgia — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 968,148 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Georgia1 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. Barnard has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Barnard 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: #980; 1891
Peak year: 1963; 25 that year
First recorded: 1891
Last recorded: 1998
All-time count: 895
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Barnard

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

Bartolo Barnaby Barkley Barnabas Bard Barret Barclay Ballard Baruch Barak Baraka Gerrard Barnett Harvard Barack Bartley Reshard Sheppard Barnes Bartlett Barnie Kennard Rashard Barrie

Sibling names for Barnard

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

For a sister

Jonna Edie Pennie Nannette Alesia Moira Lolita Lanette

For a brother

Greggory Chet Rob Richie Vince Kennedy Tod Mitch

Explore around Barnard

Top names of 1963, Barnard's peak year The 1960s in full Other names that peaked in 1891 Boys' names starting with B