Barclay
A masculine name of English origin meaning "meadow of birch trees".
Name Census estimates that about 665 living Americans carry the first name Barclay. It is a predominantly male name (97.5% of registrations). The average person named Barclay today is around 54 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Barclay births was 1970 (31 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Barclay. 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.
People living today
665
~ 1 in 515,420 Americans
Peak year
1970
31 babies that year
Average age
54
years old
2021 SSA rank
#9,414
Tracked since 1912
Gender
Gender distribution for Barclay
Barclay leans heavily male at 97.5% of total registrations, but 24 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Barclay as a male name
- Ranked #10,941 in 2021
- 6 male births in 2021
- Peak: 1970 (26 births)
Barclay as a female name
- Ranked #9,414 in 1976
- 5 female births in 1976
- Peak: 1969 (9 births)
Popularity
Barclay: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Barclay from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 162 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Barclay 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 Barclay during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Barclays live
Origin
Meaning and history of Barclay
The name Barclay has its origins in the ancient Scottish language. It is derived from the Scottish Gaelic words 'barra' meaning 'summit' and 'cle' meaning 'smooth'. The name is believed to have originated in the 11th or 12th century and was initially a locational surname referring to someone who lived near a smooth hilltop or summit.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name dates back to the 12th century when a man named Humphrey de Berkeley was mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of Gloucestershire in 1176. The name was often spelled in various ways such as Barkeley, Barkley, and Berkley during the medieval period.
The name gained prominence in Scotland during the 13th century when the Clan Barclay, a Scottish clan, emerged in Aberdeenshire. The clan is said to have descended from John Barclay, a nobleman who lived during the reign of King Alexander III (1241-1286).
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Barclay. Robert Barclay (1648-1690) was a Scottish Quaker theologian and writer who is best known for his work 'An Apology for the True Christian Divinity'. Another prominent figure was John Barclay (1582-1621), a Scottish satirist and poet who authored the famous work 'Argenis'.
In the realm of exploration, Robert Barclay (1779-1854) was a British explorer and botanist who took part in several expeditions to the Arctic regions. Alexander Barclay (c.1475-1552) was a notable English poet and translator who is credited with introducing the term 'ship of fools' into the English language through his translation of Sebastian Brant's work 'Das Narrenschiff'.
Barclay Plager (1936-1988) was a renowned American ice hockey player and coach who played for the New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues in the National Hockey League (NHL). He later served as the head coach of the Blues and was a key figure in their success in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
People
Barclay + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Barclay 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
Barclay: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Barclay?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 665 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Barclay 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 515,420 US residents.
Is Barclay a common name?
We classify Barclay as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 978 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Barclay most popular?
The single biggest year for Barclay was 1970, when 31 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Barclay is about 54 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Barclay a male name?
Yes, 97.5% of people registered as Barclay in the SSA data are male. 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.
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.