Barbara

See also: barbara, bárbara, barbará, barbára, barbarà, Barbára, and Bárbara

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

Barbara

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• (given name): Barbra

Etymology

• From Latin Barbara, the name of Saint Barbara, feminine form of barbarus, from Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “strange, foreign”). Doublet of Varvara.
• (logic): From the given name; chosen because it has three A's in it representing universal affirmatives.

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Bar‧ba‧ra

Proper noun

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.

   • 2025 June 5, Grace Gilson, “Boulder’s ‘shocked and traumatized’ Jewish community takes stock of losses and strengths”, in The Times of Israel‎:

     Among Soloway’s congregants injured in the attack was Barbara Steinmetz, an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor who has become one of the most poignant symbols of the attack.

2. (logic) A syllogism in which all three propositions are of the form "All X are Y" or "X is a Y".
   • (Can we date this quote by Aleister Crowley, Felo De Se and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     If you see a girl you like, prove it to her by Barbara and Celarent all the way to Fresison or whatever the logician's Omega is — I forget.

Derived terms

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

Translations

cognates and transliterations of female given name

Albanian: Barbára f, Varvára f Arabic: بَرْبَارَة f (barbāra) Armenian: Վարվառե (Varvaṙe) Asturian: Bárbola f Bulgarian: Варвара f (Varvara) Catalan: Bàrbara (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 芭芭拉 (zh) (Bābālā), 巴巴拉 (zh) (Bābālā) Czech: Barbora (cs) f, Barbara (cs) f Danish: Barbara Erzya: Виня (Vińa) Esperanto: Barbro Estonian: Barbara Finnish: Barbara (fi) (of foreigners) French: Barbara (fr) f, Barbe (fr) f Galician: Bárbara (gl) f Georgian: ბარბარე (barbare) German: Barbara (de) f Greek: Βαρβάρα (el) f (Varvára) Hawaiian: Palapala Hebrew: ברברה Hungarian: Barbara (hu), Borbála (hu) Irish: Bairbre f Italian: Barbara (it) Latin: Barbara f Latvian: Baiba f Lithuanian: Barbora Manx: Barbrey f Norwegian: Barbro (no) Polish: Barbara (pl) f Portuguese: Bárbara (pt) Romanian: Barbara Russian: Варва́ра (ru) f (Varvára) (cognate), Ба́рбара (ru) f (Bárbara) (transliteration) Scottish Gaelic: Barabal f Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: Варвара f, Барбара f Roman: Varvara (sh) f, Barbara (sh) f Sicilian: Vàrbara f Slovak: Barbora f Slovene: Barbara (sl) f Sorbian: Lower Sorbian: Borbora f Spanish: Bárbara (es) f Swedish: Barbro (sv) Ukrainian: Варва́ра f (Varvára)

Danish

Etymology

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

Proper noun

Barbara

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Barbara

Dutch

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin Barbara.

Pronunciation

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

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Bar‧ba‧ra

Proper noun

Barbara f

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Barbara

Derived terms

• barbarakruid

Faroese

Etymology

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

Proper noun

Barbara f

1. a female given name

Usage notes

Matronymics

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

Declension

	singular
	indefinite
nominative	Barbara
accusative	Barbaru
dative	Barbaru
genitive	Barbaru

French

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /baʁ.ba.ʁa/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France):

  (file)

Proper noun

Barbara f

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Barbara

Related terms

• Barbe

German

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

Proper noun

Barbara

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

Related terms

• Bärbel