Barbro

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled ברברו in IT Italy, IL Israel.

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 23 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◐

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

• Russian given name60 records spelled Barbro7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Sweden, Russia

  Languages: Russian, Ukrainian

  Also written Барбро, Барбру

37 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●

Barbro is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Swedish, Barbro är en svensk och norsk form av → Barbara. I både den rikssvenska och finlandssvenska almanackan 4 december.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In German, in den i96oer-Jahren entlehnter weibl. Vom., schwedische und norwegische

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• In Esperanto, a female given name from Ancient Greek, equivalent to English Barbara

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

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●

NO SSB — Navn (1880–present) — 52 years between 1945–1999. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Barbro Alvingb. 1909SESwedish journalist and writer (1909-1987)
• Barbro Kollbergb. 1917SESwedish film actress (1917-2014)
• Barbro Hiort af Ornäsb. 1921SESwedish actress
• Barbro Östlihnb. 1930SESwedish artist (1930-1995)
• Barbro Westerholmb. 1933SESwedish politician
• Barbro Martinssonb. 1935SESwedish cross-country skier
• Barbro Lindgrenb. 1937SESwedish children's writer (born 1937)
• Lill-Babsb. 1938SEnot in their usual nameSwedish schlager singer (1938-2018)
• Margita Ahlinb. 1938SEnot in their usual nameSwedish actress
• Carina Bergfeldtb. 1980SEnot in their usual nameSwedish reporter, columnist and author

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 · 208 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Barbro?

We estimate roughly 36 thousand people bear Barbro (counting its spellings and scripts) across 8 countries in our records.

In which country does Barbro have the most bearers?

We estimate about 33 thousand people bear Barbro in Sweden, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled barbro.

Where is Barbro most common?

Barbro is densest in Sweden, where the national register counts about 1 in 309 people carrying it.

Is Barbro a male or female name?

Barbro 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 Barbro mean?

Recorded meaning: a female given name, equivalent to English Barbara