# Barney (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/barney/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname transferred from the given name.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | patronymic, formed from a father’s (or ancestor’s) given name |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 16,404 |
| US rank (2010) | 2,224 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 18,821 people |
| Change since 2000 | +5.5% (15,556 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈbɑɹni/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From either the Old English personal name Bera (genitive singular Beran) or from Old English beren (“growing with barley”) + īeġ (“island”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Barney in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 79% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 13% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.9% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.7% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 3.3% |
| Two or more races | 2.1% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Barney in the United States.

## People named Barney

- Natalie Clifford Barney, American writer who hosted a literary salon at her home in Paris (1876-1972)
- Alice Pike Barney, American painter (1857-1931)
- Nora Stanton Blatch Barney, American civil engineer, architect and suffragist (1883–1971)
- Matthew Barney, American sculptor and filmmaker (born 1967)
- Ida Barney, American astronomer (1886–1982)
- Darwin Barney, American baseball player
- Tina Barney, American photographer (born 1945)

## Similar surnames

Barron, Byrne, Baron, Barone, Burney, Baran, Barna, Borne, Brune, Bran, Birney, Baroni.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.