Barbara

• Barbra

From Latin Barbara, the name of Saint Barbara, feminine form of barbarus, from Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “strange, foreign”). Doublet of Varvara.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbɑɹb(ə)ɹə/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɑːb(ə)ɹə/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Bar‧ba‧ra

Barbara (plural Barbaras)

1. A female given name from Latin.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:
     : Scene 3:

     My mother had a maid call'd Barbara; / She was in love, and he she lov'd prov'd mad / And did forsake her; […]

   • 17th century or before: English folk song: Barbara Allen: 1839 version by Thomas Percy:

     All in the merrye month of May / When greene buds they were swellin / Yong Jemmye Grove on his death-bed lay / For love of Barbara Allen.

   • 1860, Mrs Henry Wood (Ellen Wood), East Lynne, Kessinger Publishing, published 2004, →ISBN, page 29:

     "What do you think they are going to name the baby? Anne; after her and her mamma. So very ugly a name!" "I don't think so," said Mr Carlyle. "It is simple and unpretending. I like it much. Look at the long, pretentious names in our family - Archibald! Cornelia! And yours, too - Barbara! What a mouthful they all are!" Barbara contracted her eyebrows. It was equivalent to saying that he did not like her name.

   • 1922, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, (please specify |book=1, 2, or 3), page 76:

     "Everybody in the next generation," suggested Dick, "will be named Peter or Barbara - because at present all piquant literary characters are named Peter or Barbara."

   • 2007, Marina Lewycka, Two Caravans, Fig Tree, →ISBN, page 299:

     'Barbara?' Barr―baah―rrah. Barbarian woman. Wild. Untamed. An incredibly sexy name.

• Pet forms: Babs, Barb, Barbie
• herb Barbara (Barbarea vulgaris)

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Barbara

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Barbara

Ultimately from Latin Barbara.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɑr.baːˌraː/, /ˈbɑr.bəˌraː/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Bar‧ba‧ra

Barbara f

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Barbara

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Barbara f

1. a female given name

Matronymics

• son of Barbara: Barbaruson
• daughter of Barbara: Barbarudóttir

From Latin Barbara (name of a legendary saint), feminine form of barbarus, from Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “strange, foreign”).

• IPA^(key): /baʁ.ba.ʁa/

• Audio

  (file)

Barbara f

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Barbara

• Barbe

Borrowed from Latin Barbara, from the saint's name.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbarbara/, [ˈbaʁ.bɐ.ʁa], [ˈbaɐ̯-], [ˈbaː-], [-bə-], [-ˌʁaː]

• Audio

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Barbara

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Barbara; popular especially in the mid-twentieth century

• Bärbel

From Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “non-Greek-speaking, foreign”).[1]

• IPA^(key): [ˈbɒrbɒrɒ]

• Audio

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• Hyphenation: Bar‧ba‧ra
• Rhymes: -rɒ

Barbara

1. a female given name

Barbara f

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Barbara

• abbarra

Probably a substantivisation, used as a proper noun, of the feminine forms of barbarus (“wild”, “savage”, “cruel”, “barbarous”), in elliptical use for Prensiō Barbara (“the Cruel Prison”). Compare barbara (“a wild, savage, cruel, or barbarous woman”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈbar.ba.ra/, [ˈbärbärä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈbar.ba.ra/, [ˈbärbärä]
• Homophone: barbara

Barbara f sg (genitive Barbarae); first declension

1. (Medieval Latin) the name of one of the more abominable prisons of the Grand Châtelet of Paris

First-declension noun, singular only.

• (prison of the Grand Châtelet): Castelletum

• 2. BARBARA in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

Ultimately from from Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (bárbaros). Doublet of Barbórka.

• IPA^(key): /barˈba.ra/

• Audio

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• Rhymes: -ara
• Syllabification: Bar‧ba‧ra

Barbara f

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Barbara

• Barbara in Polish dictionaries at PWN

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /ˈbarbara/

Barbara f (genitive singular Barbary, nominative plural Barbary)

1. a female given name

• “Barbora”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2024

• Audio

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Barbara c (genitive Barbaras)

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Barbara

• uppblåsbar Barbara (“blow-up doll”)