Barry
- Pronunciation
- [Ba-rry]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- A Guinean Surname Meaning The Family Comes From The Peul, Fulani, Or Foulbe Ethnic Groups Of West Africa.
- Origin
- African
About the Name Barry
Barry is recorded here with an African origin, specifically as a Guinean surname denoting descent from the Peul, Fulani, or Foulbe ethnic groups of West Africa — a meaning that reflects the name's use as a family identifier within those communities. In broader English-language usage Barry also functions as an Anglicization of Irish and Welsh given names, giving it a layered identity that spans multiple cultural traditions. Whatever its path into American naming, it arrived as a friendly, approachable masculine name with a rounded, two-syllable sound.
Its notable bearers span sport, music, science, and politics. Barry Manilow (born 1943), the American singer, songwriter, and pianist born Barry Alan Pincus in Brooklyn, took his mother's maiden name and built a career studying at the New York music world before becoming one of the most commercially successful pop performers of his era. Barry White (born 1944), the American singer, songwriter, and record producer, produced foundational documents of 1970s American R&B and disco music, including his 1973 first commercial release. Barry Bonds (born 1964), the American former Major League Baseball outfielder born in Riverside, California, is the son of three-time All-Star outfielder Bobby Bonds and godson of a Hall of Fame player. Barry Sanders (born 1968), the American Hall of Fame former NFL running back, spent his 10-year NFL career with the Detroit Lions (1989–1998) and accumulated 15,269 career rushing yards. Barry Marshall, the Australian physician and microbiologist, shared the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for proving that Helicobacter pylori causes peptic ulcer disease. Barry Morris Goldwater, born in Phoenix in 1909, was a United States senator from Arizona and the 1964 Republican presidential nominee whose conservative platform redirected the postwar American right.
Barry first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 1941 and peaked in 1962 at #61. It held on in the top-1000 until 2004, last ranking at #957, accumulating 134,574 top-1000 births over its tracked career. Recorded variants include Barrie, Barrington, Baz, and Berry.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Barry
US Popularity History (1941–2004)
Annual US births named Barry by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1962 with 6,584 boys named Barry (boy rank #61 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2004, ranked #957 for boys (175 US births). That's 896 places below its 1962 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Barry Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Barry the strongest states are Missouri, Indiana, Michigan.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Missouri | #751 | 38 |
| 2 | Indiana | #856 | 17 |
| 3 | Michigan | #895 | 36 |
| 4 | Pennsylvania | #915 | 23 |
| 5 | North Carolina | #963 | 24 |
| 6 | New York | #1,108 | 57 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | #1,108 | 57 |
| 2 | North Carolina | #963 | 24 |
| 3 | Pennsylvania | #915 | 23 |
| 4 | Michigan | #895 | 36 |
| 5 | Indiana | #856 | 17 |
| 6 | Missouri | #751 | 38 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Barry in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barrie | Fair-Haired. | Male | Irish |
| Barrington | Fair-Haired. | Male | English |
Famous People Named Barry
6 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Barry.
- Barry Bonds — Baseball Player (1964)
- Barry Manilow — Pop Singer (1943)
- Barry Marshall is an Australian physician who has won Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery that peptic ulcers are caused by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori.
- Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term U.S. Senator from Arizona and one of the most venerated statesmen.
- Barry Sanders — Football Player (1968)
- Barry White — Pop Singer (1944)
Looking for names like Barry?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Barry to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Barry against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).