Barbara
From Greek, the name carries the sense of "foreign" or "stranger". Nearly half a million Polish women hold it, yet it's fading now: only about 735 girls got it last year.
Barbara Pronunciation
Barbara is pronounced bahr-BAH-rah (/barˈbara/).
What Barbara means
Where Barbara comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Barbara comes from Greek. The root barbaros meant foreign or strange, a word the Greeks pinned on anyone whose speech sounded like babble to them. The name began by pointing outward, toward the stranger, the woman arrived from elsewhere. Its short meaning stays close to that first sense: foreign, a stranger.
Saint Barbara, an early Christian martyr, carried the name into the church calendar. In Poland her day falls on 4 December, Barbórka, when miners honour her as their patron and the pit villages hold their feast. So a name that once marked the outsider became a fixed point in the year.
Basia is the diminutive, soft and everyday. In a Polish class register a teacher reads out Barbara, and the girl answers to Basia. The old sense holds underneath: foreign, a stranger.
When Barbara celebrates name day
Barbara appears 1 time in the Polish name day calendar, 1 of them as a main name, the first on 4 December.
The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.
How many people are named Barbara
1 in 48 women in Poland is named Barbara. 473,856 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #12 among female names.
Barbara's popularity over time
735 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #83 among newborns. It has been stable for a decade. Still the #12 name among living women, even as it slips to #83 among newborns.
Where parents choose Barbara
Barbara is most popular in Masovian, 56% above the national average (1,907 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Łódź (+28%) and Greater Poland (+14%). It is least common in Subcarpathian and Silesian, 46% and 36% below average respectively.
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Masovian
+56%1 in 186 babies
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Łódź
+28%1 in 227 babies
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Greater Poland
+14%1 in 255 babies
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Subcarpathian
−46%1 in 543 babies
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Silesian
−36%1 in 452 babies
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Podlaskie
−28%1 in 401 babies
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Masovian+56% 1,907 born1 in 186 babies+56%
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Łódź+28% 559 born1 in 227 babies+28%
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Greater Poland+14% 843 born1 in 255 babies+14%
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Warmian-Masurian+5% 260 born1 in 276 babies+5%
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Pomeranian−5% 483 born1 in 305 babies−5%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian−6% 355 born1 in 308 babies−6%
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Holy Cross−6% 180 born1 in 308 babies−6%
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West Pomeranian−9% 265 born1 in 319 babies−9%
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Opole−10% 142 born1 in 325 babies−10%
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Lower Silesian−11% 481 born1 in 327 babies−11%
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Lublin−16% 296 born1 in 347 babies−16%
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Lesser Poland−18% 641 born1 in 354 babies−18%
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Lubusz−23% 132 born1 in 376 babies−23%
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Podlaskie−28% 164 born1 in 401 babies−28%
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Silesian−36% 503 born1 in 452 babies−36%
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Subcarpathian−46% 222 born1 in 543 babies−46%
Barbara as a middle name
Barbara is a first name for 473,856 women in Poland and a middle name for another 403,010, a 54/46 split, almost evenly. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 4th, between Katarzyna (417,647) and Ewa (372,483).
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#2 Anna896,998
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#3 Katarzyna417,647
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#4 Barbara403,010
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#5 Ewa372,483
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#6 Teresa354,803