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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

Girl's nameOrigin: internationalIn Israel: hardly given today

BarbaraIn Hebrew: ברברה · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

Barbara (Hebrew: ברברה) is a girl's name of international origin. 991 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Its peak year was 1951, with 74 babies.

People in Israel
991
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
—
not in the list
Peak year
1951
74 babies
USA, 2025
264
rank #968

Writing and saying Barbara

In Hebrew letters the name is ברברה, read right to left. Barbara is the Latin spelling recorded in Wikidata; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms.

We have no sourced English explanation of this name yet, so we do not guess one. The Hebrew page has our Hebrew notes when there are any.

Barbara by year: Israel and abroad

How many girls out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Barbara: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Barbara in English-speaking countries

Barbara in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States2025264#9681947 (48,800)
United Kingdom202511#2,5102018 (48)
England and Wales202511#2,4392018 (42)
Alberta20252#1,6181981 (50)

Counts for girls. The Hebrew page for Barbara has every year and the other spellings.

Related Israeli names

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about Barbara

How do you write Barbara in Hebrew?

Barbara is written ברברה in Hebrew. Hebrew is read right to left.

How many people in Israel are named Barbara?

991 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name ברברה: 991 women and 0 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is Barbara a boy's or a girl's name?

In Israel it is almost always a girl's name: 100.0% of the people named ברברה are women.

Is Barbara used outside Israel?

The name Barbara appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 264 girls were given it in 2025 (#968), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 11 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.