Meaning and history
Bárbara comes from Latin barbarus, meaning “foreign, savage, strange,” ultimately from Greek βάρβαρος (barbaros), “foreign, non-Greek.” According to legend, Saint Barbara was a young woman killed by her father Dioscorus, who was then struck by lightning; she became the patron of architects, geologists, stonemasons, and artillerymen. Her fame helped spread the name throughout the Christian world in the Middle Ages, though it became rare in England after the Protestant Reformation and was revived in the 19th century.
20062006: 554 births, rank #538
2007: 482 births, rank #618
2008: 397 births, rank #747
2009: 465 births, rank #639
2010: 412 births, rank #692
20112011: 369 births, rank #745
2012: 296 births, rank #893
2013: 321 births, rank #831
2014: 326 births, rank #848
2015: 329 births, rank #849
20162016: 329 births, rank #856
2017: 303 births, rank #890
2018: 291 births, rank #920
2019: 287 births, rank #922
2020: 301 births, rank #886
20212021: 299 births, rank #904
2022: 276 births, rank #966
2023: 308 births, rank #871
2024: 317 births, rank #852
20252025: 264 births, rank #968
Barbara moved from #853 to #968 for girls between 2024 and 2025. Its highest annual birth count came in 1947, with 48,800 births.