Barbara is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning “stranger.” In 2024 it was given to 313 girls in the United States.
Barbara belongs to the Greek tradition. Its meaning — “stranger” — is the sense carried by its Greek roots, and it is the meaning we verified against published sources for this page. It travels in a few spellings: Greek.
In the United States, Barbara first appears in Social Security records in 1880. It climbed to its best-ever rank of #2 in 1937, and in 2024 313 babies received the name — 1,436,402 in total since 1880. Those are the official counts, not estimates.
More names from the Greek shelf:
Barbara means “stranger” in its Greek roots. We check every meaning against published sources before it appears here.
Barbara is a girl name. In 2024, 313 babies received the name in the US.
Barbara comes from the Greek tradition. It is also spelled Greek.
Barbara first appears in US records in 1880. Its best-ever ranking was #2 in 1937, and 313 babies were given the name in 2024.
Barbara is pronounced /ˈbɑɹb(ə)ɹə/ (IPA).
Meaning and origin for this page were checked against this source. US popularity figures are from the Social Security Administration's public baby-names data. If you spot an error, write to [email protected] — accuracy is the whole point of this site, and corrections are made fast.
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