English: from a pet form of the female personal name
Barbara (see Barbara).
Southern French: from a
diminutive of Occitan barbari ‘barbarous’, ‘barbarian’. In
particular, this word came to denote a Moor or Berber from the Barbary
Coast in North Africa, and hence was then applied to a man of swarthy
appearance or uncouth habits.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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