Barbara Family History
Barbara Name Meaning
Italian English and West Indian (Dutch Caribbean); Spanish and Portuguese (Bárbara): from the female personal name Barbara which was borne by a popular Christian saint who according to legend was imprisoned in a tower and later put to death by her own father for refusing to recant her Christian beliefs. The name comes from the feminine form of Latin barbarus Greek barbaros ‘foreign(er)’ (originally an onomatopoeic word formed in imitation of the unintelligible babbling of non-Greeks). As a West Indian surname it reflects the partially mother-oriented name culture of the formerly enslaved people of the West Indies (compare Martina ). Catalan (Barbarà): variant of Barberà (see Barbera ).
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022