Barnard
A masculine name of Germanic origin meaning "hardy" or "brave as a bear".
Name Census estimates that about 448 living Americans carry the first name Barnard. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Barnard today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Barnard births was 1963 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Barnard. 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
448
~ 1 in 765,077 Americans
Peak year
1963
25 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
1998 SSA rank
#8,583
Tracked since 1891
Census
Barnard in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 449 people with the first name Barnard, which placed it at #22,241 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
#22,241
National first-name rank
People counted
449
449 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
44.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Barnard
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Barnard is White at 44.3%. The next largest groups are Black (44.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.9%). 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 Barnard 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 Barnard at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White44.3% · 199
- Black or African American44.1% · 198
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.9% · 22
- Two or more races3.3% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.2% · 10
- Hispanic or Latino1.1% · 5
Popularity
Barnard: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Barnard from the 1890s through to the 1990s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 178 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Barnard 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 Barnard during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Barnards live
Origin
Meaning and history of Barnard
The name Barnard is an English given name derived from the Old French and Germanic roots "barn" and "hard." The name can be traced back to the 11th century and was initially used to refer to someone who was hardy, strong, or brave like a bear.
In the Middle Ages, the name Barnard was particularly popular among the Norman nobility who had settled in England following the Norman Conquest of 1066. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, which lists several individuals with the name Barnard as landowners and tenants.
The name Barnard has also been associated with religious figures throughout history. One notable example is Saint Barnard of Vienne, who lived in the 6th century and served as the Archbishop of Vienne in modern-day France. He is venerated as a patron saint of several French towns and villages.
In the 12th century, the name Barnard gained prominence with the rise of the Cistercian monastic order. Barnard of Clairvaux, born in 1090, was a renowned French abbot and theologian who played a significant role in the development of the Cistercian order. He is remembered for his influential writings and his contribution to the spread of monastic ideals.
Another notable figure who bore the name Barnard was Barnard of Pavia, a 12th-century Italian architect and sculptor. He is best known for his work on the Cathedral of Modena, which is considered a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture.
In the 16th century, the name Barnard was associated with the English philosopher and statesman, Francis Bacon, who was born in 1561. His full name was Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, but he was also known by his childhood nickname, Barnard.
In the 19th century, the name Barnard gained prominence in the United States with the birth of Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard in 1809. He was an American educator and mathematician who served as the president of Columbia University from 1864 to 1889.
People
Barnard + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Barnard 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
Barnard: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Barnard?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 448 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Barnard 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 765,077 US residents.
Is Barnard a common name?
We classify Barnard as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 895 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Barnard most popular?
The single biggest year for Barnard was 1963, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Barnard is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Barnard in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 449 people with the name Barnard, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,241 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 Barnard 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 Barnard?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Barnard appears almost entirely male. Of the 450 people counted with this name, 99.1% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Barnard?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Barnard is White at 44.3%. The next largest groups are Black (44.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.9%). 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 Barnard most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Barnard in the 2020 Census, accounting for 44.3% (199 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 Barnard in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Barnard a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Barnard 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.
Is Barnard still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Barnard 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 Barnard 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 the name Barnard?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.