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Barnard vs Bart

American parents have registered 16,361 Barts since 1880, against 895 Barnards. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Barnard against Bart, 1880 to 2025 0 300 600 900 1.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Barnard Bart

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 134 years in which either name was published, Bart for 133 years and Barnard for 1 year. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Barnard Bart
Total US births 89516,361
Most in one year 251,022
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 41012,000
Median age today 6159
Peak year 19631959
Best rank 1,585th boys249th boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18911880
Girls / boys 0 / 8955 / 16,356

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 Barnards alive today are over 61; half the Barts are over 59. That is 2 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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