Barbara is from the Greek barbaros ("non-Greek-speaking, foreign") — the same root as "barbarian." Ranked #2 in the US in 1937; held a top-10 spot from 1927 to 1958. Barbara Walters (1929-2022) — broke the gender barrier as the first female evening news anchor on a major US network (1976) and creator of The View. Barbara Jordan (1936-1996) — first Black woman elected to the Texas Senate and the US Congress from the Deep South; delivered the keynote at the 1976 Democratic National Convention. Saint Barbara of Heliopolis — early Christian martyr, patron saint of artillerymen.
Subject of Susan Page's The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters (2024).
In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Barbara reduce to 7, The Seeker. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.