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Barak vs Barrett

American parents have registered 34,417 Barretts since 1880, against 929 Baraks. Barrett is still ahead, with 2,178 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Barak against Barrett, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Barak Barrett

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Barrett has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1886 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1970, when Barak had 17 and Barrett had 96.

Side by side

  Barak Barrett
Total US births 92934,417
Most in one year 292,178
Babies in 2025 82,178
Estimated living today 88033,000
Median age today 308
Peak year 20062025
Best rank 3,524th boys171st boys
Rank in 2025 8,910th171st
First recorded 19531886
Girls / boys 0 / 929992 / 33,425

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Baraks alive today are over 30; half the Barretts are over 8. That is 22 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Barak and Barrett.