Barbara
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "foreign or strange".
Name Census estimates that about 694,059 living Americans carry the first name Barbara. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Barbara today is around 71 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Barbara births was 1947 (48,889 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Barbara. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Barbara with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Barbara is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 4,135 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Barbara is about 71 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Barbaras were born before 1965.
- • Compared to the 1940s, recent registration numbers for Barbara have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
694K
~ 1 in 494 Americans
Peak year
1947
48,889 babies that year
Average age
71
years old
1993 SSA rank
#860
Tracked since 1880
Census
Barbara in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 943,005 people with the first name Barbara, which placed it at #29 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#29
National first-name rank
People counted
943K
943,005 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
312.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Barbara
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Barbara is White at 84.4%. The next largest groups are Black (9.4%) and Hispanic (3.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Barbara described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Barbara at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.4% · 795,880
- Black or African American9.4% · 88,936
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 34,090
- Two or more races1.6% · 15,269
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 4,781
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 4,049
Gender
Gender distribution for Barbara
Out of the 1,440,537 babies given the name Barbara since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Barbara as a male name
- Ranked #8,819 in 1993
- 5 male births in 1993
- Peak: 1942 (164 births)
Barbara as a female name
- Ranked #860 in 2024
- 313 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (48,800 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Barbara appears almost entirely female. Of the 943,006 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Barbara: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Barbara from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 426,425 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Barbara by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Barbara during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 0 | 1,820 | 1,820 |
| 1890s | 0 | 2,783 | 2,783 |
| 1900s | 0 | 3,999 | 3,999 |
| 1910s | 32 | 23,704 | 23,736 |
| 1920s | 261 | 97,210 | 97,471 |
| 1930s | 1,188 | 296,419 | 297,607 |
| 1940s | 1,158 | 425,267 | 426,425 |
| 1950s | 692 | 345,723 | 346,415 |
| 1960s | 504 | 159,774 | 160,278 |
| 1970s | 162 | 42,238 | 42,400 |
| 1980s | 112 | 19,138 | 19,250 |
| 1990s | 26 | 8,855 | 8,881 |
| 2000s | 0 | 4,721 | 4,721 |
| 2010s | 0 | 3,256 | 3,256 |
| 2020s | 0 | 1,495 | 1,495 |
Geography
Where Barbaras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named Barbara, while Alaska, Nevada, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 27,990 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Barbara
The name Barbara has its origins in the Greek language and culture, and it is derived from the Greek word "barbaros," which means "foreign" or "stranger." This name first appeared around the 3rd century AD and was initially used to refer to non-Greeks or those who did not speak the Greek language fluently.
In the early years of Christianity, the name Barbara gained significance due to the legend of Saint Barbara, a young woman martyred for her faith in the 3rd or 4th century AD. According to tradition, she was imprisoned and eventually beheaded by her father, a pagan, for converting to Christianity. Her story and name became popular among early Christians, and she was venerated as a saint and a symbol of steadfast faith.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Barbara can be found in the Greek martyrologies, which recount the lives and deaths of Christian martyrs. These texts date back to the 5th or 6th century AD and contain references to Saint Barbara and her martyrdom.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Barbara. One of the most famous was Barbara of Nicomedia, the aforementioned early Christian martyr, whose feast day is celebrated on December 4th in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Another notable Barbara was Barbara of Cilli (1392-1451), a Hungarian princess who became the Queen of Germany and the Holy Roman Empress through her marriage to Emperor Sigismund.
In the 16th century, Barbara Radziwiłł (1520-1551) was a prominent figure in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. She was a renowned patron of the arts and played a significant role in the Renaissance cultural movement in Eastern Europe. Additionally, Barbara Villiers (1640-1709), a prominent English courtier and mistress of King Charles II, wielded considerable influence during the Restoration period.
The name Barbara also has a connection to the arts, with one of the most famous examples being Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677), an Italian singer and composer who was a pioneer in the field of opera and helped establish the genre in its early stages.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who carried the name Barbara, demonstrating its enduring popularity and significance across various cultures and time periods.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Barbara
People
Barbara + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Barbara as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Barbara: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Barbara?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 694,059 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Barbara going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 494 US residents.
Is Barbara a common name?
We classify Barbara as "Very Common". It ranks above 100% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,440,537 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Barbara most popular?
The single biggest year for Barbara was 1947, when 48,889 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Barbara is about 71 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Barbara in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 943,005 people with the name Barbara, or 312.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #29 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Barbara in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Barbara?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Barbara appears almost entirely female. Of the 943,006 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Barbara?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Barbara is White at 84.4%. The next largest groups are Black (9.4%) and Hispanic (3.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Barbara most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Barbara in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.4% (795,880 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Barbara in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Barbara a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Barbara in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Barbara still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Barbara in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Barbara can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Barbara as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Barbara, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.