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This is the name of my auntie (though her dad mucked on at the registry office so on her birth certificate she is Marjorie Barbara even though it was supposed to be the other way around and all her life she has been called Barbara). Plus it's my niece's middle name (Amelia Barbara).

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I like it okay but if it wasn't in my family I don't think I'd given it a second glance. I still find it very Grandma-y and dated. Not ready for a comeback yet IMO.

I’ve always seen Barbara as quite dated and bland, but after hearing/seeing it on two characters I’m warming to it. I don’t think I’ll have her on my list anytime soon, but I can more imagine it on a young person now, which is a start.

I like its style. I'd personally never choose a name with the sounds that it has. Just not appealing to my taste. I dislike its image for women my own age, but it's fine on someone older or younger.

This message was edited 3/24/2018, 7:44 PM

I like it. It is very underused today. If I met a little Barbara, I would be happy. I think it would sound better as a middle name though.

Hi A !!!

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Barbara is one of the ugliest names here in Italy.

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It is dated, it is a bad adjective for a foreign person and it has a horrible sound.

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It is rated 3/10 imo.

I really don't like it. I will always view Barbara as an emphatically dated, UGLY name. It's not one of those old-time-y names that I can ever see making a significant comeback and I sincerely hope it never does.

I remember after I switched from 'name dropper' to 'letter dropper' - one kind lady, smiling, said "I have a friend named Barbra who dropped her "middle a" too. (There is no pun on your user name.)

I think of frumpy cardigans, barbwire, a woman locked in a tower (Saint Barbara), WWII era and the 1950s, boring office jobs, prejudice/sexism/repression, Malibu barbie, barbarians, barba "beard" -> bearded ladies, and Barbara Streisand who I don't like very much.

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I like it more when I think about it in a historical context (it seems well-rounded, strong, and sharp, kind of wild but level-headed), though I have a hard time getting over all the negative associations I have with it that come from the 20th century.

This message was edited 3/24/2018, 10:11 AM

Growing up, I knew of a Barbara I really really hated. So that may poison my view of the name. I also went to school with quite a few unobjectionable girls named Barbara (I was born at a time when the name was still popular), but their existence wasn't enough to cause me to stop hating the name Barbara because of that Barbara.

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So it's hard for me to fairly judge it. I think I wouldn't like it anyway, because the repeated "bar" sound just sounds harsh and silly at the same time, but since I can't live in a hypothetical world where that Barbara never existed, I can't be sure.

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I will say that after reading "Through A Glass Darkly", which takes place in the early 1700s and in which the main character is named Barbara, I did start to see a little old-time charm in it. Just a little.