Barnaby vs Barney
American parents have registered 16,181 Barneys since 1880, against 380 Barnabys. But in 2025 it was Barnaby that was commoner, 5 babies to 5.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Barnaby Barney
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
Of the 141 years in which either name was published, Barney for 128 years and Barnaby for 13 years. The lead changed hands 7 times.
Side by side
| Barnaby | Barney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 380 | 16,181 |
| Most in one year | 19 | 304 |
| Babies in 2025 | 5 | 5 |
| Estimated living today | 350 | 5,700 |
| Median age today | 45 | 67 |
| Peak year | 1974 | 1919 |
| Best rank | 2,199th boys | 319th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | 12,008th | 12,008th |
| First recorded | 1953 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 0 / 380 | 91 / 16,090 |
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 Barneys alive today are over 67; half the Barnabys are over 45. That is 22 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Both names abroad
Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.
| Country | Barnaby | Barney |
|---|---|---|
| England and Wales | 5,557 | 2,551 |
| Scotland | 38 | 26 |
Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Barnaby and Barney.