Barbra

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Barbara in US United States, PL Poland, GB United Kingdom and 20 more, Варвара in RU Russia, UA Ukraine, KZ Kazakhstan and 1 more, Bárbara in BR Brazil, FR France and ברברה in HU Hungary.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 13 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Barbra is also recorded as another name, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name8.3K records spelled Barbra7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Philippines, France

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French

  Also written Bárbra, Barbrá

51 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Barbra is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In German, weibl. Vom., norwegische, niederlän­ dische und englische ['barbra] Nebenform von

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 104 years between 1882–2014. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Barbra Ringb. 1870NONorwegian novelist, translator and critic (1870-1955)
• Barbra Stabellb. 1895NONorwegian missionary (1895-1964)
• Barbra Fullerb. 1921USAmerican actress
• Lise Fjeldstadb. 1939NOnot in their usual nameNorwegian actress
• Barbra Amesburyb. 1948CACanadian philanthropist, singer-songwriter, composer, and filmmaker
• Barbra Higginsb. 1957PAPanamanian fencer
• Barbra Borotab. 1958SISlovene teacher
• Barbra Fontanab. 1965USAmerican beach volleyball player
• Barbie Almalbisb. 1977PHnot in their usual nameFilipino singer
• Barbra Bandab. 2000ZMZambian association football player

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 239 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Barbra?

We estimate roughly 1.7 million people bear Barbra (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Barbra have the most bearers?

We estimate about 942 thousand people bear Barbra in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled barbara.

Where is Barbra most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Barbra is densest in Poland — about 1 in 82 people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is Barbra compared with other names?

In the United States, Barbra is the 36th most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.

Is Barbra a male or female name?

Barbra is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Barbra mean?

Recorded meaning: A female given name from Latin, a nonstandard spelling of Barbara.