Barbara
Barbara is ranked 860th among girls in 2024 (313 births). Its best rank was 2nd, in 1937–1944.
- Rank in 2024
- #860up 16 from 2023
- Births in 2024
- 3130.02% of girls
- Peak year
- 194748,800 births
- Best rank
- #2first in 1937
- Since 1880
- 1,440,537people given the name
The story in the numbers
1,436,402 girls have been named Barbara in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1947, with 48,800 births — 2.8% of all girls recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 313 births in 2024, against 48,800 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1947, and the 1940s alone account for 30%. It has spent 145 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 65 of them in the top 100 and 32 in the top 10.
It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 4,135 boys have also been given it, 0.29% of the total.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Barbara | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 1,820 | |
| 1890s | 2,783 | |
| 1900s | 3,999 | |
| 1910s | 23,704 | |
| 1920s | 97,210 | |
| 1930s | 296,419 | |
| 1940s | 425,267 | |
| 1950s | 345,723 | |
| 1960s | 159,774 | |
| 1970s | 42,238 | |
| 1980s | 19,138 | |
| 1990s | 8,855 | |
| 2000s | 4,721 | |
| 2010s | 3,256 | |
| 2020s | 1,495 |
In 1947, its biggest year
Barbara was the 4th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1947 were Linda, Mary, Patricia, Barbara and Sandra. See all of 1947.
Names that rose and fell with Barbara
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Deloispeak 1948
- Joycepeak 1942
- Beverlypeak 1953
- Peggypeak 1958
- Delorisepeak 1948
- Peggiepeak 1948
- Joannepeak 1947
- Joannpeak 1942
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.