Barb — girls' name

What the Data Says About Barb

The Social Security Administration has registered 3,853 babies named Barb between 1938 and 1972, spanning 35 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a girl's name, Barb currently falls outside the top 1,000 girls' names for 1972. The name reached its historical peak in 1960, when 493 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Barb performed strongest in the 1960s, accumulating 2,140 births during that ten-year window. Across the 5 decades of recorded activity, Barb shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in Ohio, which accounts for 475 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Michigan and Minnesota. In total, SSA state-level files list Barb in 19 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Barb in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 3,853 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.