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Barrett vs Barrington

American parents have registered 34,417 Barretts since 1880, against 1,281 Barringtons. Barrett is still ahead, with 2,178 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Barrett Barrington

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 1932, when Barrett had 22 and Barrington had 11.

Side by side

  Barrett Barrington
Total US births 34,4171,281
Most in one year 2,17843
Babies in 2025 2,17811
Estimated living today 33,0001,100
Median age today 834
Peak year 20251991
Best rank 171st boys1,823rd boys
Rank in 2025 171st7,194th
First recorded 18861928
Girls / boys 992 / 33,4250 / 1,281

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 Barringtons alive today are over 34; half the Barretts are over 8. That is 26 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: Barrett and Barrington.