Barbara
Barbara is a female given name , rarely also a family name .
Origin and meaning of the name
The word Barbara is an onomatopoeic word for the barbarians , i.e. the strangers who used words and sounds that the Greeks did not understand , like a babble : Brabrabrabara . The Greek word means “the foreigner” in German, the Latin barbarus means “foreign, foreign, wild”. The term goes back to the Sanskrit word barbarāh (plur.) 'Stammler, Laller' to denote strange peoples (see: barbarian ). The veneration of St. Barbara contributed to the spread of the name .
distribution
At the end of the 19th century the name Barbara was moderately popular in Germany. Its popularity increased from the late 1920s. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the name was one of the ten most frequently given female first names in some years. Then its popularity gradually declined at first, sharply during the 1980s.
name day
December 4th : ( Barbaratag )
Well-known namesake
First name
Barbara or Bárbara
- Barbara of Nicomedia (3rd century), saint, patron saint of miners, artillery and the THW
- Barbara von Absberg (15th century), Abbess of Obermünster
- Barbara of Poland (1478–1534), Polish princess, Duchess of Saxony
- Maria Barbara de Bragança (1711–1758), Portuguese Infanta and Queen of Spain
- Barbara Aland (* 1937), German theologian
- Barbara Auer (* 1959), German actress
- Barbara Bär (* 1957), Swiss politician
- Barbara Bloom (* 1951), American artist
- Barbara Bronnen (1938–2019), German writer
- Barbara Büchner (* 1950), Austrian writer
- Barbara Budrich (* 1965), German publisher
- Barbara Bush (1925–2018), American first lady
- Barbara Dennerlein (* 1964), German jazz musician
- Barbara Dex (* 1974), Belgian singer
- Barbara Eden (born 1931), American actress
- Barbara Eligmann (* 1963), German presenter
- Barbara Feltus (* 1966), German actress
- Barbara Frey (actress, 1941) (* 1941), German actress
- Barbara Frey (actress, 1955) (* 1955), German actress
- Barbara Frey (director) (* 1963), Swiss theater director
- Barbara Gilbert (* before 1978), American opera singer
- Barbara Gruber (* 1977), German ski mountaineer
- Barbara Hahlweg (* 1968), German journalist and presenter
- Barbara Hale (1922-2017), American actress
- Barbara Handler (* 1941), daughter of the Mattel founders and namesake of Barbie
- Barbara Hannigan (* 1971), Canadian soprano and conductor
- Barbara Hendricks (singer) (born 1948), American-Swedish singer (soprano)
- Barbara Hendricks (politician) (* 1952), German politician (SPD)
- Barbara Henneberger (1940–1964), German ski racer
- Barbara Karlich (* 1969), Austrian television presenter
- Barbara Kellerbauer (* 1943), German chanson singer
- Barbara Klemm (* 1939), German photographer
- Barbara Klepsch (* 1965), German politician (CDU)
- Barbara König (writer) (1925–2011), German writer
- Barbara Krupp (* 1947), Austrian architect
- Barbara Leibssle-Balogh (* 1985), Hungarian handball player
- Barbara Lierheimer († 1590), victim of the Nördlinger witch hunt
- Barbara March (1953-2019), Canadian actress
- Barbara Masekela (* 1941), South African politician
- Barbara Massing (1960–2017), German captain
- Barbara McClintock (1902–1992), American botanist and geneticist
- Barbara Meier (* 1986), German mannequin and photo model
- Bárbara Micheline do Monte Barbosa (* 1988), Brazilian soccer goalkeeper
- Barbara Niedernhuber (* 1974), German toboggan runner
- Barbara Nowacka (* 1975), Polish politician and feminist
- Barbara Prammer (1954–2014), Austrian politician
- Barbara Rittner (* 1973), German tennis player
- Barbara Rudnik (1958–2009), German actress
- Barbara Rütting (1927–2020), German actress, author and politician
- Barbara Salesch (* 1950), German lawyer
- Barbara Schett (* 1976), Austrian tennis player
- Barbara Schöneberger (* 1974), German presenter
- Barbara Sommer (* 1948), German politician
- Barbara Sotelsek (* 1974), Austrian actress
- Barbara Stamm (* 1944), German politician (CSU)
- Barbara Stanwyck (1907–1990), American actress
- Barbara Steffens (* 1962), German politician
- Barbara Strozzi (1619–1677), Italian singer and composer
- Barbara Stöckl (* 1963), Austrian television presenter
- Barbara Stühlmeyer (* 1964), German author and scientist
- Barbara Sutton Curtis (1930–2019), American jazz pianist
- Barbara Thalheim (* 1947), German singer and songwriter
- Barbara Uthmann (1514–1575), German entrepreneur
- Barbara Valentin (1940–2002), Austrian actress
- Barbara Wagner (figure skater) (* 1938), Canadian figure skater
- Barbara Weber (* 1975), Swiss theater director and general manager
- Barbara Wussow (* 1961), Austrian actress
Barbra
- Barbra Streisand (* 1942), American singer and actress
family name
- Agatha Barbara (1923–2002), Maltese politician
- Bernard Barbara (* 1942), French experimental physicist
- Emanuel Barbara (1949–2018), Maltese clergyman, Bishop of Malindi in Kenya
- Etienne Barbara (* 1982), Maltese football player
- Joan La Barbara (born 1947), American singer and composer
- Joseph Barbara (1905-1959), Italian-American mobster
- Paola Barbara (1912–1989), Italian actress
- Serge Barbara (* 1973), French racing cyclist
stage name
- Ana Bárbara (* 1971), Mexican singer, actress and model
- Barbara (1930–1997), French chanson singer and composer
- Barbara , German street and action artist
Fictional namesake
- Barbara, supporting character from the animated film Finding Nemo
- Barbara, protagonist from the fairy tale film The Three Feathers
- Barbara Blocksberg, the mother of Bibi Blocksberg
- Barbara Millicent Roberts aka Barbie
- Barbarella, science fiction heroine from the comic book of the same name, Barbarella
- Barbarella, the first German hybrid missile
- Varvara, main character from the Russian fairy tale film The beautiful Varvara
Ship names
- Barbara (1908) : The British ferry between England and the Netherlands was initially called Munich , then St. Denis . She was used by the Wehrmacht in 1940 and also after the Second World War as a barge barge.
- Barbara (1915) : The ship first served as the British minesweeper HMS Zinnia in World War I, then as a fisheries protection ship in Belgium and wasconverted intothe anti-aircraft training ship Barbara after being confiscated by the Germans in 1940.
- Barbara (1926) : The Barbara was a German cargo ship built in 1926 and the second ship to be equipped with Flettner rotors.
variants
- Babette ( French diminutive)
- Bäbi ( Swiss German )
- Babis ( Czech )
- Bäerbel ( Luxembourgish )
- Bairbre ( Irish )
- Barba ( Breton )
- Bárbara ( Portuguese , Spanish )
- Barbel ( french )
- Barbė ( Lithuanian )
- Bärbel ( German short form)
- Bärbl (less common German short form)
- Barbla ( Rhaeto-Romanic )
- Barbora ( Lithuanian , Slovak , Czech )
- Barbra ( English minor form)
- Barbro ( Swedish minor form)
- Basia ( Polish short form, ['baɕa] )
- Borbála ( Hungarian )
- Borbora ( Upper Sorbian , ['bɔʀbɔʀa] )
- Rabab ( Arabic )
- Varvara (Варвара in the Cyrillic alphabet) ( Russian , Ukrainian , Belarusian )
Others:
Baba, Babe, Babi, Babina, Babra, Babs, Bäbs, Babschi, Babsi, Bäbsi, Babsili, Babsl, Baby, Bacha, Baha, Bar, Barb, Barbarella, Barbarina, Barbarita, Barbel, Barbet (h) a, Barbi, Bärbi, Barbie, Bärbla, Barby, Bari, Bobbel, Bobbie, Bobsi, Wara, Wawa, Wetl, Wetty, Barbossa, Bimbolina, Baronella
Individual evidence
Web links
Frequency, regional distribution, and age cohort distribution of the name Barbara in Slovenia