Barney

What Barney means

Means “growing with barley + island”

From either the Old English personal name Bera (genitive singular Beran) or from Old English beren (“growing with barley”) + īeġ (“island”).

Source: Wiktionary, “Barney” (revision 93669344), CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted from the etymology; we don’t write our own.

How popular is Barney?

US: Falling: down from #10644 in 2015. England & Wales: Rising: up from #423 in 2015.

Biggest US share so far: 1898, when 73 boys got the name (#204 that year). First in the US records in 1880.

How common

• About 1 in 341,615 baby boys in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 1,519 baby boys in England and Wales in 2025
• About 1 in 6,547 baby boys in Scotland in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

US vs UK

Barney is #12008 in the US and #257 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (boys). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 99.9+% of US babies named Barney were boys.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

How to say it

IPA from Wiktionary.

Other spellings parents chose in 2025

• Barren9 US

Names that sound the same and differ by a letter or two, with baby counts for the same sex. US and E&W counts.

If you like Barney

Boys

• Stanley#863“stone + meadow”^*
• Wayne#652“wagon”^*
• Alfred#840“elf + counsel”^*
• Harold#991“army + ruler, authority”^*
• Scott#534Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1971, with 30,901 babies; 561 in 2025
• Bradley#403“broad + woodland”^*

For a sister

• April#542“the month of the goddess Venus”^*
• Holly#416“wood, clearing, meadow”^*
• Lacey#738Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1984, with 2,399 babies; 370 in 2025
• Tiffany#878Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1988, with 18,364 babies; 304 in 2025
• Kelsey#814Editor’s note Cooling off in the US: #343 in 2015, #814 in 2025
• Amber#520“ambergris”^*

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under English, From a surname, whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Barney’s. Rank is US 2025.