Barnet
English habitational name transferred from Barnet in Hertfordshire.
Name Census estimates that about 56 living Americans carry the first name Barnet. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Barnet today is around 80 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Barnet births was 1916 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Barnet. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Barnet is about 80 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Barnets were born before 1956.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Barnet. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
56
~ 1 in 6,120,613 Americans
Peak year
1916
15 babies that year
Average age
80
years old
1954 SSA rank
#3,866
Tracked since 1898
Census
Barnet in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 150 people with the first name Barnet, which placed it at #45,340 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
#45,340
National first-name rank
People counted
150
150 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Barnet
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Barnet is White at 77.3%. The next largest groups are Black (13.3%) and Two or More Races (4.7%). 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 Barnet 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 Barnet at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.3% · 116
- Black or African American13.3% · 20
- Two or more races4.7% · 7
- Hispanic or Latino2.7% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 1
Popularity
Barnet: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Barnet from the 1890s through to the 1950s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 86 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1910s peak, Barnet remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Barnet 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 Barnet during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Barnets live
Origin
Meaning and history of Barnet
The name Barnet originates from the Old English language and dates back to the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, around the 5th to 11th centuries CE. It is derived from the Old English words "bearn" meaning "child" and "neat" meaning "cattle" or "ox". Thus, the name Barnet likely referred to someone who tended cattle or oxen, particularly a herdsman or a farmer's child.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Barnet can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landholdings and resources in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears as "Barnett" in this historical record, indicating its use during the Norman period.
In medieval times, the name Barnet was particularly prevalent in the counties of Hertfordshire and Middlesex, where it was associated with several notable individuals. One such person was Barnet of Cheshunt, a 13th-century landholder and benefactor who contributed to the construction of a church in the town of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire.
The name Barnet has also been linked to various religious figures throughout history. Saint Barnett, a 7th-century Benedictine monk and abbot, was known for his piety and charitable works in the region of Burgundy, France. Additionally, there was a notable Barnet Smith, a 16th-century Protestant martyr who was burned at the stake for his beliefs during the reign of Queen Mary I of England.
Prominent historical figures who bore the name Barnet include Barnet Holcroft (1629-1685), an English actor and playwright known for his controversial works during the Restoration period. Another notable individual was Barnet Lintot (1675-1736), a renowned English publisher who worked with literary giants such as Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift.
Sir Barnet Frere (1762-1841) was a distinguished British diplomat and statesman who served as the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Ottoman Empire. He played a crucial role in negotiating the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829, which marked the end of the Russo-Turkish War.
Finally, Barnet Hyman Isaacs (1824-1912) was a prominent British businessman and philanthropist who co-founded the Golders Green Synagogue in London and supported numerous charitable causes throughout his lifetime.
People
Barnet + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Barnet 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
Barnet: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Barnet?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 56 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Barnet 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 6,120,613 US residents.
Is Barnet a common name?
We classify Barnet as "Very Rare". It ranks above 56% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 221 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Barnet most popular?
The single biggest year for Barnet was 1916, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Barnet is about 80 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Barnet in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 150 people with the name Barnet, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #45,340 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 Barnet 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 Barnet?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Barnet leans strongly male. 139 people counted with this name were male (94.6%), compared with 8 female bearers (5.4%). 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 Barnet?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Barnet is White at 77.3%. The next largest groups are Black (13.3%) and Two or More Races (4.7%). 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 Barnet most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Barnet in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.3% (116 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 Barnet in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Barnet a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Barnet 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 Barnet still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Barnet 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 Barnet 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 are called Barnet?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.