# Barney (given name)

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 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 active 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 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 boxer born Dov-Ber Rasofsky
* Barney Sedran (1891–1964), American 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 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 Half-Life: Blue Shift and a major character in the Half-Life 2 series
* Barney Collier, from the original Mission: Impossible TV series, and the 1988 revival, 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