Barnaby
About Barnaby
Barnaby, a genial and energetic name with an Irish-sounding three-syllable lilt, is an ancient appellation that manages to be both unusual and highly attractive and deserves to be used more than it is. A sweet-spot name that's a real winner.
Barnaby is a version of Barnabas, the name of an Apostle companion of St. Paul on his missionary journeys. Barnaby has NEVER ranked on the US Top 1000, though it is on the charts in the UK and is well-liked by Nameberry visitors.
The name of the good-natured hero of Dickens's novel Barnaby Rudge, it became more familiar to the modern American public through the TV series Barnaby Jones. Barnaby has been a character in Hello, Dolly!, a doctor played by Cary Grant in the movie Monkey Business, a comic strip character, and has starred in a number of children's books.
Pronounced BAR-nuh-bee.
As of October 2026, Barnaby ranked #12273 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #2204 in 1974, Nameberry popularity #428.
Editor: Sophie Kihm
Sources: US popularity data is from the Social Security Administration. Meanings and origins are from Nameberry's name references.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2015 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2016 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | — | 0 | 0 |
World rankings
Similar names
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Barnaby on lists
Famous Barnabys
- Barnaby Edwards
English actor
- Barnaby Thomas Gerald Joyce
Australian minister for agriculture
- Barnaby Michael Douglas Jack
New Zealand computer hacker
- Barnaby Carpenter
American actor
- Barnaby Ross
pen name of Ellery Queen authors Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee
- Barnaby Thompson
British TV producer
- Barnaby Bernard Lintot
English publisher
- Jonathan Barnaby Moody
son of actor Ron Moody
- Barnaby Borstein Douglas (b. 2008)
son of Jackson Douglas and Alex Borstein
- Barnaby Southcombe
English actor, son of English actress Charlotte Rampling
- Barnaby George "Barns" Courtney
American,English singer and songwriter
Barnaby in pop culture
- "Barnaby Jones
" TV series and title detective
- "Barnaby Rudge" (1841)
Charles Dickens novel and main character
- Tom Barnaby
main character on British TV's "Midsomer Murders"
- Barnaby Kember
character from "Swimming Pool Sunday" by Madeleine Wickham
- Barnaby Slush
novelist in Richard Aldington's "Death of a Hero" (1929)
- Barnaby Stinger
elf from TV series "Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom"
- Barnaby Bowser
dog character on Disney TV series "Dumbo's Circus"
- Barnaby Baxter
character in comic strip "Barnaby" by Crockett Johnson
- Barnaby Grimes
series of children's books by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
- "Barnaby in Exile
" short story by Mike Resnick
- "Drunken Barnaby's Four Journeys to the North of England
" poems by Richard Braithwaite
- Widow Barnaby
trilogy of novels by Frances Trollope
- Barnaby
frog in "Toad Patrol"
- Barnaby Brooks Jr.
main character of Japanese animation, "Tiger & Bunny"
- Barnaby Lee
a character in Hogwarts Mystery