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Barbra

Girls' name

Variant of Barbara

Barbra has been given to 7,758 babies in the U.S. since 1882. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1966, with 343 recorded.

Babies named Barbra, 2014

1 in 741,000

Barbra over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Barbra: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Barbara

Latin

What Barbra means

Barbra is a variant of Barbara.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Barbra is used in English.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈbɑɹ.bɹə/ and /ˈbɑː.bɹə/ for Barbra.

Meaning behind the documented name family

Barbra is a variant of Barbara. Barbara has more than one origin or interpretation.

Origin, language, and formation

Barbra is used in English. Its origins include Latin.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Barbara.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 7,758 girls were recorded with the name Barbra between 1882 and 2014. Its highest annual count was 343 in 1966; its best national rank was #512 in 1966.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Barbra?

Barbra had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2014, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2014
1 in 741,000
5 of 3,706,812 births
Among girls only
1 in 357,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2014
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
513,874 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Barbra sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2014 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 513,874 children born in 2014 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Barbra. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Barbras were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Barbra was born before 1959 — so the typical Barbra is around 66 today.

Median birth year
1959
About 66 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
24.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
3.5%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
5,459
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 24.4% of all recorded uses (1,890).

Is Barbra rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1966 (343)
Years since peak
59
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
36.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#512
1966

Spellings of Barbra

Barbra is not the most common spelling — Barbara is, with 97.8% against Barbra's 0.53%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Barbra is used

Across 1910–2025, Barbra was most concentrated in Mississippi — about 1 in 16,667 girls, against 1 in 37,045 across all states with data. It was least common in West Virginia (1 in —).

06 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Mississippi1 in 16,667
  2. 2Arkansas1 in 25,000
  3. 3Illinois1 in 25,000
  4. 4New York1 in 25,000
  5. 5Ohio1 in 25,000
  6. 6Oklahoma1 in 25,000
  7. 7Pennsylvania1 in 25,000
  8. 8California1 in 33,333

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Barbra has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Barbra around the world

Where Barbra ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • Canada
    1991–1991
    #1,914
    in 1991
  • South Australia
    1945–2001
    #711
    in 2001

Popularity data from Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Barbra

People whose public names include Barbra, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Barbra in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Barbra. Linked forms have their own page here.

BarbroBarbaraBarbora

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Barbra by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#512
1966
Peak year
1966
343 that year
First recorded
1882
Last recorded
2014
All-time count
7,758
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Barbra

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

BarbieSabraBarrieBarrettBarabraDebbraBarbTambraBariBarryKimbraBarbarBarbiBarriAbraBarkatBaraahBareenBaranAmbraBarbeeBarbaDelbraBarney

Names with a curve like Barbra

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Barbra, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

PatricaCarleenJoellenMaryjoRonaTwylaCherrieEvonneRositaNannetteRoseanneSharlene

Sibling names for Barbra

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Barbra

Top names of 1966, Barbra's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1966Girls' names starting with B