Barbara (given name) definition

Name of a legendary saint, , feminine form of , βάρβαρος, "strange, foreign".

17 century or before: English folk song: Barbara Allen:1839 version by Thomas Percy:

All in the merrye month of May

When greene buds they were swellin

Yong Jemmye Grove on his death-bed lay

For love of Barbara Allen.
1860 Mrs Henry Wood (Ellen Wood): East Lynne. Kessinger Publishing, 2004. ISBN 0192804626 page 29:

"What do you think they are going to name the baby? Anne; after her and her mamma. So very ugly a name!"

"I don't think so," said Mr Carlyle. "It is simple and unpretending. I like it much. Look at the long, pretentious names in our family - Archibald! Cornelia! And yours, too - Barbara! What a mouthful they all are!"

Barbara contracted her eyebrows. It was equivalent to saying that he did not like her name.
1922 Francis Scott Fitzgerald: The Beautiful and Damned ISBN 1603035281 : page 76:

"Everybody in the next generation," suggested Dick, "will be named Peter or Barbara - because at present all piquant literary characters are named Peter or Barbara."

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