Barbara

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

English

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^[1]:

     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)
• Cherokee: ᏆᏆᎠ (quaqua'a)
• 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

  Latin: 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

• Barbara's son: Barbaruson
• Barbara's daughter: 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

Hungarian

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbɒrbɒrɒ]

• Audio:

  (file)

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

Proper noun

Barbara

1. a female given name

Declension

Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, back harmony)

	singular	plural
nominative	Barbara	Barbarák
accusative	Barbarát	Barbarákat
dative	Barbarának	Barbaráknak
instrumental	Barbarával	Barbarákkal
causal-final	Barbaráért	Barbarákért
translative	Barbarává	Barbarákká
terminative	Barbaráig	Barbarákig
essive-formal	Barbaraként	Barbarákként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	Barbarában	Barbarákban
superessive	Barbarán	Barbarákon
adessive	Barbaránál	Barbaráknál
illative	Barbarába	Barbarákba
sublative	Barbarára	Barbarákra
allative	Barbarához	Barbarákhoz
elative	Barbarából	Barbarákból
delative	Barbaráról	Barbarákról
ablative	Barbarától	Barbaráktól
non-attributive possessive – singular	Barbaráé	Barbaráké
non-attributive possessive – plural	Barbaráéi	Barbarákéi

Possessive forms of Barbara

possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	Barbarám	Barbaráim
2nd person sing.	Barbarád	Barbaráid
3rd person sing.	Barbarája	Barbarái
1st person plural	Barbaránk	Barbaráink
2nd person plural	Barbarátok	Barbaráitok
3rd person plural	Barbarájuk	Barbaráik

Italian

Proper noun

Barbara f

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Barbara

Anagrams

• abbarra

Latin

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

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

Proper noun

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

Declension

First-declension noun, singular only.

	singular
nominative	Barbara
genitive	Barbarae
dative	Barbarae
accusative	Barbaram
ablative	Barbarā
vocative	Barbara

Holonyms

• (prison of the Grand Châtelet): Castelletum

References

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

Polish

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /barˈba.ra/

• Audio:

  (file)

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

Proper noun

Barbara f

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Barbara

Declension

Declension of Barbara

	singular	plural
nominative	Barbara	Barbary
genitive	Barbary	Barbar
dative	Barbarze	Barbarom
accusative	Barbarę	Barbary
instrumental	Barbarą	Barbarami
locative	Barbarze	Barbarach
vocative	Barbaro	Barbary

Derived terms

• Basia

Further reading

• Barbara in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Slovak

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /barbara/, [ˈbarbara]
• Rhymes: -ara
• Hyphenation: Bar‧ba‧ra

Proper noun

Barbara f (diminutive Barborka)

1. a female given name

Declension

Declension of Barbara
(pattern žena)

	singular	plural
nominative	Barbara	Barbary
genitive	Barbary	Barbár
dative	Barbare	Barbarám
accusative	Barbaru	Barbary
locative	Barbare	Barbarách
instrumental	Barbarou	Barbarami

Derived terms

Hypocoristics

• Bara
• Barča
• Bora
• Boriša
• Borka

Further reading

• “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, 2003–2026

Swedish

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Proper noun

Barbara c (genitive Barbaras)

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Barbara

Derived terms

• uppblåsbar Barbara (“blow-up doll”)

Tagalog

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish Bárbara.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈbaɾbaɾa/ [ˌbaɾ.bɐˈɾa]
• Rhymes: -aɾbaɾa
• Syllabification: Bar‧ba‧ra

Proper noun

Bárbará (Baybayin spelling ᜊᜇ᜔ᜊᜇ)

1. a female given name from Spanish [in turn from Latin, in turn from Ancient Greek], equivalent to English Barbara