Barnett
Masculine · “Land cleared by burning”
Barnett is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,279 boys against 6 girls since 1880.
Barnett is two names that arrived at one spelling from opposite ends of Europe. One is an English place word for a piece of ground cleared by burning. The other is what Jewish families in England and America wrote when they needed an English-looking surname to stand for Baruch or Berel.
How old is the name Barnett?
Barnett was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Barnett alive today was born around 1938, making them about 87 years old. About 500 people named Barnett are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Barnett most popular?
Barnett peaked in 1899, reaching #714 nationally. See the whole 1899 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From baernet to Barnett
The story of Barnett
Clearing land by fire is old and was ordinary, and English has a word for the result because the result was a recognizable kind of place: not a wood and not a field but the stage between. The names stuck to the map and then to the families that lived on them. The Hebrew line is much later and much more deliberate. Immigrant families in English-speaking countries frequently kept the first sound of a name and abandoned the rest, choosing an existing English surname that started the same way, and Barnett served for Baruch, Berel, Bernhard and Ber alike. Neither history is visible in the spelling, and the name has been given to daughters as well as sons in America, which is what happens to any surname that moves to the front.
Meaningscholars disagree
Land cleared by burning
The English source is Old English baernet, the act or the result of burning, used of woodland burnt off to make it farmable. There are several places called Barnet north of London named that way. The other source carries a completely different meaning, since Baruch is Hebrew for blessed, and a family that took Barnett as a cover for it was choosing on sound alone. A given name in the American record could come from either.
How the name formed
- baernet
- Barnet
- Barnett
Related forms: Baruch · Berel
Pronouncing Barnett
BAR-net
Two syllables with the stress at the front, unlike Arnett and Bennett, which many American families stress at the back. The final t is fully pronounced, which distinguishes it in speech from Barnard.
Nicknames for Barnett
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 191735 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #714reached in 1899
- Change vs 2009
- 0.0%5 in 2015, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Barnett in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Baruch in Hebrew — related form
- Berel in Yiddish — related form
Barnetts among us
people named Barnett are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Barnett sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Short, firm and easy to spell once heard, with no silent letters.
- It works for a child of either sex, since a surname carries no sex of its own.
- Two entirely separate histories are available to a family, and both are documented.
- The record holds this spelling for girls as well as boys, so it does not signal a child's sex.
- It reads as a surname and will be entered in the wrong column more than once.
- Barnet with one t is the older English spelling and will be written by people who know the place.
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What they receive
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Barnett
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Barnetts are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Barnett are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Barnett in 2025?
- Barnett is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Barnett with classmates?
- Barnett will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More B names
The most-given names starting with B, all years combined.
Brian#339 · Benjamin#11 · Brandon#261 · Bryan#336 · Bruce#536 · Billy#1068 · Bobby#1097 · Bradley#403
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Barnett? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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