Baby Name of the Day: Barnaby

The baby name Barnaby comes from the ancient world by way of medieval England – a familiar path. Yet this name remains quite rare.

Thanks to Lola for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day.

WHAT DOES THE NAME BARNABY MEAN?

Back in the first century, the future Saint Barnabas journeyed with the future Saint Paul, winning converts and taking part in the Council of Jerusalem. Some accounts make him the cousin of Mark the Evangelist.

Barnabas was born Joseph. He took the Aramaic name at the same time he set out to spread the gospel. Bar means “son of.” The second element might mean prophet, or it might mean encourage or exhort. Or maybe it means “son of consolation,” depending on the translation. 

The baby name Barnaby evolved in medieval England. All those longer, Latin names tended to take Y endings in English. Margaret became Margery; Cecilia would’ve been Cecily.

FAMOUS FIGURES

Thanks to the Biblical figure, both versions surface as a baby’s name over the years.

Neither Barnabas or Barnaby has ever cracked the US Top 1000, but they are broadly familiar and bring to mind a number of figures, including:

• Perhaps the most famous Barnabas was Collins, the vampire of Dark Shadows fame in both the cult classic 1960s television series as well as the 2012 movie starring Johnny Depp.
• Charles Dickens wrote Barnaby Rudge between 1840 and 41. The character’s pet raven would later inspire Edgar Allen Poe.
• Both Broadway musical Hello Dolly! and Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker include minor characters with the name.
• In 1952’s Monkey Business, Cary Grant played a chemist named Barnaby. His experiments go a little wild.
• Buddy Ebsen played a milk-drinking detective in CBS’s Barnaby Jones in the 1970s.

Comedian Alex Borstein (of Family Guy and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) fame and her former husband Jackson Douglas (Jackson on Gilmore Girls) named their kids Henrietta and Barnaby. Those siblings name are perfect together – very traditional, but so far outside of the mainstream that they’re edgy, too. 

BARNABY BEAR

A handful of fictional bears have answered to Barnaby. 

Most recently, the BBC’s Becky and Barnaby Bear aired in the early 2000s. 

A 1960s French animated series titled Colarogl starred a bear. He became Barnaby when the series was imported to England. (Other countries called him Jeremy and Oliver, to name just two.) 

NICKNAMES FOR BARNABY

Sound-wise, if you chose Barnaby as a baby’s name, it could easily shorten to Bear. Barney follows logically. Something like Bay, Baz, or Bash could work, too, as might names like Abe or Ari.

HOW POPULAR IS THE NAME BARNABY?

Places to hear Barnaby are plentiful, but actual bearers of the name? Those are harder to find.

Nickname Barney fared better, ranking in the US Top 1000 from 1880 into the 1970s. Pop culture gives us The Flinstones’ Rubble, the singing Purple Dinosaur, and How I Met Your Mother. 

Despite that track record, it’s seldom heard as a baby’s name in the US. And yet, it is probably the common over the course of the 20th century.

As of 2024, here are the numbers:

• The baby name Barnaby was given to just 7 boys born in the US
• Another 22 were named Barnabas 
• And Barney was given to a mere 7 boys

In England, the baby name Barnaby ranks in their Top 200. 

All of this makes the name incredibly rare, at least in the US. 

Worth noting: in a world of gender-neutral names, Barnaby is solidly masculine. 

ANTIQUE AND WEARABLE

If you love your names solidly antique, with history to spare, and a quirky, offbeat sensibility, Barnaby might just be the perfect name for your son.

It sounds smart and unexpected. It’s every bit as traditional as Zachary or Anthony, but not nearly as common. 

If you’re seeking something truly different, without being invented or outlandish in any way, the name Barnaby delivers.

Would you consider the baby name Barnaby?

This post was originally published on March 20, 2009. It was substantially revised and re-posted on August 22, 2016 and November 25, 2025.