Look up another surname
The barr Surname

barr Name Meaning and History

  1. Scottish and northern Irish: habitational name from any of various places in southwestern Scotland, in particular Ayrshire and Renfrewshire, named with Gaelic barr ‘height’, ‘hill’ or a British cognate of this.
  2. English: topographic name for someone who lived by a gateway or barrier, from Middle English, Old French barre ‘bar’, ‘obstruction’.
  3. English (of Norman origin): habitational name from any of various places in northern France called Barre. See Barre.
  4. English: habitational name from any of various places in England called Barr, for example Great Barr in the West Midlands, named with the Celtic element barro ‘height’, ‘hill’.
  5. English: from the vocabulary word barr ‘bar’, ‘pole’, either a metonymic occupational name for a maker of bars, or perhaps a nickname for a tall, thin man.
  6. Irish: from Ó Bairr, Donegal form of Ó Báire (see Barry 2).

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
Learn the meaning and history of your first name
Share this page with friends and family

14–Day Free Trial

Download the Getting Started guide
It's FREE with registration!

barr Family Facts

Are you a Facebook user? Add barr family facts to your Facebook profile.
Distribution of barr Families in the US in 1920
Number of barr families
 525-1048
 176-524		 1-175
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

Click on a state to view barr census records

Year

How is this helpful?

  • You can decide where (in which states) to start searching for barr records.
  • You can see how barr families moved over time by selecting different Census years.

What do I do next?

The information for this map came from Ancestry.com’s US Federal Census Collection.
  • Census records can tell you little-known facts about your ancestors such as birthplace, residence and occupation.
  • Click here to search barr census records.

Search for barr records


More resources for your barr family history

Start your FREE family tree. Who will you discover?

A family tree is the easiest way to start discovering your family history. To begin, just enter whatever you know and we'll use that to try and find more information for you.

Begin your family tree with your name:

Learn more about family trees.

The barr name in History

A unique volume of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary following the barr family name as far back in history as possible.

Member Connections

More Tools and Resources