Barbara
- Pronunciation
- [Bar-ba-ra]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Stranger
- Origin
- Greek
About the Name Barbara
Barbara comes from the Greek barbaros, meaning "foreign" or "stranger" — originally an imitative term for someone whose speech sounded like unintelligible "bar-bar" to Greek ears. The name spread through Christian Europe via the veneration of Saint Barbara, an early-Christian martyr traditionally placed in the 3rd century, who became one of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages and a patron of those in danger of sudden death. Despite its "stranger" root, the name was thoroughly domesticated across more than a thousand years of European and American use.
Barbara was one of the defining American girls' names of the early-to-mid 20th century. It entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 1913, climbed to a national rank of #2 in 1937, and was carried by roughly 1.4 million American girls across its charted years. That mid-century ubiquity produced a generation of prominent bearers — broadcast journalist Barbara Walters (born 1929, the first woman to co-anchor a US network evening newscast); I Dream of Jeannie star Barbara Eden (born 1931); Get Smart's Agent 99, Barbara Feldon (born 1933); Barbara Jordan (born 1936), the first Black woman elected to the US House from the South; best-selling English novelist Barbara Cartland; and writer-activist Barbara Ehrenreich.
Like most names that reach the very top, Barbara eventually receded — it slipped down the rankings through the late 20th century but has never left the top-1000, sitting at #860 as recently as 2024, a mark of enduring classic status rather than passing fashion. The name carries a warm, capable, mid-century register and an unusually rich set of short forms, from the brisk Barb and playful Babs to Barbie, Bobbie, and Bonnie. Recorded variants include Babette, Barbarella, Basia (a Polish form), and Bebe.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Barbara
US Popularity History (1913–2025)
Annual US births named Barbara by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1947 with 48,800 girls named Barbara (girl rank #4 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #968 for girls (264 US births). That's 964 places below its 1947 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Barbara Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Barbara the strongest states are Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Texas.
Strongest girls-name states
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Virginia | #965 | 28 |
| 2 | Florida | #893 | 75 |
| 3 | Illinois | #882 | 31 |
| 4 | New Jersey | #864 | 25 |
| 5 | California | #842 | 346 |
| 6 | Michigan | #840 | 45 |
| 7 | Arizona | #830 | 53 |
| 8 | New York | #789 | 143 |
| 9 | Ohio | #763 | 103 |
| 10 | Wisconsin | #724 | 45 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Barbara in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Babette | Stranger | Female | French |
| Barbi | Traveler From A Foreign Land. In Catholic Custom St. Barbara Is A Protectress Against Fire And Lightning. | Female | English |
| Barbie | Traveler From A Foreign Land. In Catholic Custom St. Barbara Is A Protectress Against Fire And Lightning. | Female | English |
| Bibi | Lady. | Female | Arabic |
| Bobbie | Abbreviation Of Robert. | Male | English |
| Bobby | Abbreviation Of Robert. | Male | English |
| Bonnie | Sweet | Female | French |
Famous People Named Barbara
11 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Barbara.
- Barbara Cartland was a renowned novelist of British origin.
- Barbara Eden — TV Actress (1931)
- Barbara Ehrenreich is an American writer and political activist, most famous as a social critic and journalist.
- Barbara Feldon — TV Actress (1933)
- Barbara Grizzuti Harrison was an American author and journalist, most famous for her autobiographical works and travel writing.
- Barbara Harris is a Tony award winning Broadway and film actress.
- Barbara Hepworth was an English artist and sculptor.
- Barbara Jordan — Politician (1936)
- Barbara Kingsolver is an American novelist, poet, social activist, and author of the best-selling novel ‘The Poisonwood Bible’.
- Barbara Kruger is an American conceptual artist best known for her black and white photographs overlaid with powerful captions.
- Barbara Walters — Journalist (1929)
Looking for names like Barbara?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Barbara to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Barbara against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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