Bart
Masculine · “son of Talmai”
Bart is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 16,356 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Bart is the front of Bartholomew, and Bartholomew is not a name at all in Aramaic — it is a patronymic. Bar Talmai means son of Talmai, so the apostle is identified by his father rather than named.
How old is the name Bart?
Bart was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Bart alive today was born around 1963, making them about 62 years old. About 12,500 people named Bart are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bart most popular?
Bart peaked in 1959, reaching #249 nationally. See the whole 1959 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From bar Talmai to Bart
The story of Bart
Bartholomew is named among the twelve, and his cult was strong enough in medieval Europe to put the name into every Christian language and onto a great many churches and fairs. English clipped it to Bart and Bat. American use of Bart as a legal name in its own right rose through the twentieth century and peaked around 1966, well before the animated series that is now most people's first association.
Meaning
son of Talmai
From the Aramaic bar Talmai, 'son of Talmai'. Talmai is an older Hebrew name, borne in the Book of Samuel by a king, and generally read as connected to a word for a furrow. The apostle's own personal name is not recorded in the gospels.
How the name formed
- bar Talmai
- Bartholomaios
- Bartholomew
- Bart
Related forms: Bartolomeo · Bartolomé · Bart · Bartosz
Pronouncing Bart
BART
One syllable. Said identically in English and Dutch, where it is a common name in its own right.
Nicknames for Bart
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
- 1961753 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #249reached in 1959
- Change vs 2015
- −16.7%5 in 2023, from 6
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.
Bart in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bartolomeo in Italian — related form
- Bartolomé in Spanish — related form
- Bart in Dutch — same name
- Bartosz in Polish — related form
Barts among us
people named Bart 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
Bart has already lived its whole cycle: it rose, had its era, and has stepped off the charts. The fashion question is behind it — what lies ahead is the waiting room where revivals begin, once a name's first generation has grown distant enough for it to sound fresh again.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Bartholomew stands behind it with two thousand years of documented use.
- Bart is a standard independent name in Dutch, so it has a life outside English.
- One syllable, firm, and never mispronounced.
- A long-running animated series has made one Bart the dominant association.
- The parent name is a patronymic, so it identifies a father rather than describing the bearer.
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What they receive
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Bart
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Barts are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 12,500 people named Bart are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bart in 2025?
- Bart is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Bart with classmates?
- Bart 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 Bart? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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