Barry

Where Barry comes from

Anglicized form of Irish Bairre, short form of Fionnbharr, from fionn (“white”) + barr (“head”).
— Wiktionary's entry for Barry
  • Irish
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1883
    First appearance
    #892 among boys, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1936
    Barry C. Barish born
    American physicist
  3. 1951
    Barry Marshall born
    Nobel Prize winner, and Professor of Clinical Microbiology
  4. 1962
    Peak, #61
    6,585 babies named Barry — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1967
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #96.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Irish.
  • A diminutive of the male given name Bartholomew.
  • A diminutive of the male given name Barack.
Namesakes
  • Barry Marshall · Nobel Prize winner, and Professor of Clinical Microbiology, born 1951
  • Barry C. Barish · American physicist, born 1936
  • Barry Bostwick · American actor, born 1945
  • Barry White · American soul singer, 1944–2003
  • Barry Levinson · American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer, born 1942

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.