Barney (given name) explained

Barney is a masculine given name, often a short form (hypocorism) of Barnard, Barnett and other names, and occasionally a nickname. It is also derived from the Slavic name Barni, the pet form of Barnim, which means "defender", and it was formerly a popular name throughout Poland. Notable people with the name include:

People

Given name

Barney Aaron (1800–1859), English-born American Hall of Fame lightweight bare-knuckle boxer
Young Barney Aaron (1836–1907), English-born American bare-knuckle boxer; son of Barney Aaron
Barney Barnato (1851–1897), British mining entrepreneur born Barnet Isaacs, one of those who gained control of diamond, and later gold, mining in South Africa
Barney Clark (died 1983), first human recipient of an artificial heart
Barney Corse (1799–1878), American abolitionist
Barney M. Giles (1892–1984), US Army Air Forces lieutenant general
Barney Hill (1922–1969), American who, with his wife, claimed to have been kidnapped by aliens
Barney F. Hajiro (1916–2011), US Army soldier awarded the Medal of Honor
Barney Kessel (1923–2004), American jazz guitarist
Barney Lebrowitz (1891–1949), better known as "Battling Levinsky", American Hall-of-Fame world champion light heavyweight boxer
Barney Martin (1923–2005), American actor
Barney McCosky (1917–1996), Major League Baseball outfielder
Barney Pelty (1880–1939), American Major League Baseball player
Barney Poole (1923–2005), National Football League player
Barney Ross (1909–1967), American Hall-of-Fame world champion boxer born Dov-Ber Rasofsky
Barney Sedran (1891–1964), American Hall-of-Fame basketball player
Barney Visser (born 1949), NASCAR team owner
Barney E. Warren (1867–1951), American Christian hymnwriter and minister

Hypocorism

Bernard Barney Berlinger (1908–2002), American decathlete
Bernard Barney Carr (Gaelic footballer) (1923–2021), Irish Gaelic football player and manager
Barnett Barney Danson (1921–2011), Canadian politician and cabinet minister
Bernhard Barney Dreyfuss (1865–1932), owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team
Barnett Barney Frank (born 1940), American former politician
Barnaby Barney Harwood (born 1979), British actor and television presenter
Bernard Barney Herbert (1889–1949), Australian rules footballer
Bernard Barney Hudson (1906–1971), English rugby union and rugby league footballer
Bernard Barney McKenna (1939–2012), Irish musician and a founding member of The Dubliners
Berna Barney Oldfield (1878–1946), American automobile racer and pioneer
Barnet Barney Rosset (1922–2012), owner of Grove Press, and publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the magazine Evergreen Review
Bernard Barney Wilen (1937–1996), French saxophonist

Nickname

Barney Bigard (1906–1980), American jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist
Barney Carr (1897–1971), Australian rules footballer
Barney Chapman (1939-2020), Texan Dairy Queen owner and rancher
Barney Greenway (born 1969), British extreme metal vocalist
Barney McCallum (1926–2019), given name David Brace McCallum, coinventor of the racket sport pickleball
Barney Roos (1888–1960), American automotive engineer, co-designer of the Willys MB Jeep
Raymond van Barneveld (born 1967), Dutch professional darts player

Fictional characters

Barney the Dinosaur, title character of Barney & Friends, a children's TV show about a singing purple dinosaur host, formerly a sometimes singing blue dinosaur host in the early pilot video series of Barney & the Backyard Gang consisting three-part episodes from 1980s.
Barney Barton, older brother and arch-enemy of the superhero Hawkeye in the Marvel Comics universe
Barney Bear, the title character of the 1939-1954 animated shorts Barney Bear
Barney Calhoun, a playable character in and a major character in the Half-Life 2 series
Barney Collier, from the Mission: Impossible TV series, portrayed by Greg Morris
Barney Cousins, fictional kidnapper from the 1993 movie The Vanishing
Barney Fife, from The Andy Griffith Show
Barney Google, a comic strip character in Barney Google and Snuffy Smith
Barney Gumble, from The Simpsons
Barney Martin, a wandering circus boy The Barney Mystery Series of children's books by Enid Blyton
Barney Miller, a police captain in the TV show Barney Miller
Barney Ross, the leader of The Expendables
Barney Rubble, from The Flintstones
Barney Stinson, from the CBS television series How I Met Your Mother, portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris
Barney Stockman, from the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated TV series
Barney, a sheepdog in the short-lived British animated children's TV series Barney