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Barbee vs Barton

American parents have registered 9,371 Bartons since 1880, against 113 Barbees. Barton is still ahead, with 8 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Barbee against Barton, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Barbee Barton

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Barton has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1929, when Barbee had 9 and Barton had 63.

Side by side

  Barbee Barton
Total US births 1139,371
Most in one year 11245
Babies in 2025 under 58
Estimated living today 805,500
Median age today 7361
Peak year 19521960
Best rank 3,372nd girls509th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked8,910th
First recorded 19291880
Girls / boys 113 / 00 / 9,371

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Barbees alive today are over 73; half the Bartons are over 61. That is 12 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Barbee and Barton.