Name Generator

How popular is the name Barbara?

Births per year, rank history and how many Barbaras are alive today.

Barbara (female), once a common girls' name, is now rarely given to new babies in England and Wales: just 11 in 2025, ranked 2440th. The name peaked in 1934, when around 8,100 babies were given the name, the 7th most popular that year. It has declined since 1934; the 2025 figure is roughly 1% of its peak. At least 270,000 babies have been named Barbara in England and Wales since 1904. Figures before 1996 are estimates.

The Barbara you are most likely to meet is around 81 years old. Half of all Barbaras born in England and Wales are between 72 and 86, and there are at least 140,000 of them alive today. If you walk into a room of 100 females, there's roughly a 36% chance that at least one of them will be called Barbara.

How many babies are named Barbara each year?

Where does Barbara rank among girls' names?

Where this data comes from

Figures from 1996 onwards are the Office for National Statistics' annual baby-name registrations for England and Wales, which record every name given to three or more babies in a year. Figures before 1996 are estimates: the ONS published only top-100 rankings at ten-year intervals back to 1904, so counts for those years are modelled from the rankings, calibrated against Douglas Galbi's long-run research into English name frequencies, and shown with an uncertainty band. Estimates of living bearers combine these birth figures with national life tables and ONS mid-year population estimates.

One limit worth naming: these figures count names as registered at birth. Anyone who changes their name later in life - including trans people, and anyone who adopts a different name by deed poll or simply by use - is not reflected here. Birth registrations record where a name began, not the name a person lives with.