Popularity of the name Barbara, 1880–2025

Barbara was at its most popular in 1938, when 39,277 girls were given the name: about 1 in 28 girls born in the U.S. that year, ranking #2. In 2025, 264 girls were named Barbara, ranking #968. In all, Social Security counts 1,436,695 girls named Barbara since 1880. Social Security’s records also list 4,136 boys named Barbara.

Peak year

1938

Rank in 1938

#2

Babies in 1938

39,277

Rank in 2025

#968

Total since 1880

1,436,695

Where it stands now

In the past decade the name slipped from #849 in 2015 to #968 in 2025: 329 girls got it in 2015, and 264 in 2025.

Decade by decade

Its best decade was the 1930s, when 296,420 girls were named Barbara, #3 for the decade. It ranked #135 in the 1880s and #909 in the 2020s so far.

Every 20 years in the records: 127 in 1880 (#128), 338 in 1900 (#162), 5,106 in 1920 (#47), 36,736 in 1940 (#2), 24,454 in 1960 (#12), 2,578 in 1980 (#120), 534 in 2000 (#505) and 301 in 2020 (#886).

Highs and lows

The most girls given the name in a single year was 48,800, in 1947. That is not its peak year: Social Security’s records hold more girls for 1947 than for 1938, so the name’s share of births was smaller. Its best rank in any year was #2, first reached in 1937.

Every year

The table lists every year from 1880 to 2025 in which Social Security recorded at least 5 girls named Barbara, with the name’s rank that year.

How these numbers are counted

Social Security publishes, for every year since 1880, how many babies of each sex were given each name, counting any name given to at least 5. A name’s rank is its place that year among names for the same sex, by number of babies. Names with the same count share a rank here, while Social Security’s own lists break ties alphabetically, so a rank can differ from theirs by a place or two. A name’s share is the number of babies given it divided by all babies of that sex in the data that year, and its peak is the year that share was highest. Shares rather than counts set the peak, because far more babies were born in some years than others: counting babies alone would pull nearly every name’s peak toward the 1946–1964 baby boom.

Source: the U.S. Social Security Administration’s national baby name data, from Social Security card applications for babies born in the U.S. A name is left out of a year when fewer than 5 babies of one sex got it, and counts before about 1937 are incomplete, because many people born then never applied for a card. See how Baby Boom builds its data. Figures may contain errors.