How Many People Are Named Barbara?
people named Barbara are alive in the United States today (estimate)
About 1 in 414 people in the US has this name
Based on 1,440,831 babies named Barbara in Social Security records from 1880 to 2025, and the share of each birth year still alive in 2025.
Popularity Rank
⭐⭐ Common
Peak Year
48,889 births
Trend
Stable (last 10 years)
📖 Name Origin & Meaning
Meaning:
Derived from Greek βαρβαρος (barbaros) meaning "foreign". According to legend, Saint Barbara was a young woman killed by her father Dioscorus, who was then killed by a bolt of lightning. She is the patron of architects, geologists, stonemasons and artillerymen. Because of her renown, the name came into general use in the Christian world in the Middle Ages. In England it became rare after the Protestant Reformation, but it was revived in the 19th century.
Source of the meaning, origin, pronunciation and related names: Behind the Name.
Same Sound, Other Spellings
These names are pronounced like Barbara in English. Counting Barbara and these spellings together, about 829,601 people alive in the US have the name.
⚧ Gender Distribution
Almost all of the babies given the name Barbara (99.8%) were girls.
👥 Age Distribution
The average person named Barbara alive today is about 71 years old, and 86% are 60 or older. Half of them were between 65 and 80 in 2025.
📈 Popularity Over Time
Barbara first appears in the records in 1880 and was given most often in 1947, to 48,889 babies. In 2025, 264 babies got the name.
Babies given the name each year, 1880 to 2025
🏆 Rank History
Barbara reached #2 among girls' names in 1937 to 1944, and was in the top 10 for 32 years, 1927 to 1958. In 2025 it ranked #968.
| Girls | |
|---|---|
| Rank in 2025 | #968 |
| Best rank | #2 (1937 to 1944) |
| Years in the top 10 | 32 |
| Years in the top 100 | 64 (1913 to 1976) |
| Rank in its biggest decade | #3 in the 1940s |
📍 State-Wise Distribution
People named Barbara alive today, by the state where they were born (estimate; state records start in 1910).
More people named Barbara were born in New York than in any other state: about 85,395 of those alive today. Compared with the national rate in the same years, Barbara was given about 1.4 times as often in Delaware, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
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