Barry
An English masculine name derived from the Old English "bearu" meaning "grove".
Name Census estimates that about 136,504 living Americans carry the first name Barry. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Barry today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Barry births was 1962 (6,610 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Barry. 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 Barry with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Barry is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 766 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Barry have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
137K
~ 1 in 2,511 Americans
Peak year
1962
6,610 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,415
Tracked since 1883
Census
Barry in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 136,550 people with the first name Barry, which placed it at #416 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
#416
National first-name rank
People counted
137K
136,550 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
45.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Barry
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Barry is White at 85.0%. The next largest groups are Black (10.1%) and Two or More Races (2.1%). 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 Barry 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 Barry at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.0% · 116,096
- Black or African American10.1% · 13,786
- Two or more races2.1% · 2,814
- Hispanic or Latino1.2% · 1,700
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 1,520
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 634
Gender
Gender distribution for Barry
Out of the 181,921 babies given the name Barry since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Barry as a male name
- Ranked #1,415 in 2024
- 130 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1962 (6,584 births)
Barry as a female name
- Ranked #13,512 in 1992
- 5 female births in 1992
- Peak: 1963 (32 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Barry appears almost entirely male. Of the 136,560 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Barry: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Barry from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 55,008 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Barry 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 Barry during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Barrys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New York, California recorded the most babies named Barry, while Alaska, Nevada, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,483 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Barry
The name Barry has its origins in the Old Celtic language, derived from the word "barr" which means "summit" or "top." It is believed to have first emerged in ancient Britain and Ireland during the Iron Age, around the 6th century BC.
The earliest recorded use of the name Barry can be traced back to the 7th century AD in Ireland, where it was a common given name among the Celtic population. It was often associated with nobility and leadership, reflecting the meaning of "top" or "summit."
In the Middle Ages, the name Barry gained popularity across Europe, particularly in France and England. It was frequently used by Norman nobles who had settled in Britain after the Norman Conquest in 1066. One notable bearer of the name was Barry de Bun, a Norman knight who fought alongside William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
The name Barry also has a strong connection to religious and literary history. In the 12th century, there was a Saint Barry, a French abbot and founder of the Benedictine monastery in Burgundy. The name also appears in the epic poem "The Lay of the Cid," which recounts the life of the renowned Spanish hero El Cid Campeador.
Throughout history, several prominent figures have borne the name Barry. One of the earliest was Barry Fitzgerald (1888-1961), an Irish actor who won an Academy Award for his performance in the film "Going My Way" in 1944. Another notable bearer was Barry Goldwater (1909-1998), an American politician and businessman who ran for President of the United States in 1964.
Other famous individuals named Barry include Barry Manilow (born 1943), an American singer-songwriter and producer known for hits like "Mandy" and "Copacabana." Barry Bonds (born 1964) is a former professional baseball player who holds the record for most career home runs in Major League Baseball. Barry White (1944-2003) was an American singer-songwriter and composer renowned for his deep, distinctive bass voice.
While the name Barry has its roots in ancient Celtic culture, it has endured and been embraced across various regions and ethnicities throughout history, making it a truly global name with a rich and diverse legacy.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Barry
People
Barry + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Barry 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
Barry: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Barry?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 136,504 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Barry 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 2,511 US residents.
Is Barry a common name?
We classify Barry as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 181,921 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Barry most popular?
The single biggest year for Barry was 1962, when 6,610 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Barry 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 Barry in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 136,550 people with the name Barry, or 45.21 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #416 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 Barry 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 Barry?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Barry appears almost entirely male. Of the 136,560 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Barry?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Barry is White at 85.0%. The next largest groups are Black (10.1%) and Two or More Races (2.1%). 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 Barry most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Barry in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.0% (116,096 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 Barry in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Barry a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Barry 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 Barry still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Barry 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 Barry 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 named Barry?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.