Barney

Where Barney comes from

From either the Old English personal name Bera (genitive singular Beran) or from Old English beren (“growing with barley”) + īeġ (“island”).
— Wiktionary's entry for Barney
  • Old English
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #249 among boys — 44 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1887
    Peak, #201
    58 babies named Barney — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1923
    Barney Kessel born
    American jazz guitarist
  4. 1940
    Barney Frank born
    American politician
  5. 1989
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #2,690.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name:
  • A male given name transferred from the surname.
  • A diminutive of the male given names Barnabas, Barnaby, Bernard, and Barnett.
  • A male given name from Old English.
Namesakes
  • Barney Frank · American politician, 1940–2026
  • Barney Kessel · American jazz guitarist, 1923–2004
  • Barney Ewell · athletics competitor, 1918–1996
  • Barney Martin · American actor, 1923–2005
  • Barney Bigard · American jazz clarinetist, jazz musician, 1906–1980

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.