Bärbel
given name · Latin script
Meaning: weibl. Vom., Koseform von
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˈbɛʁbl̩/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Bärbel is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country.
- DEGermany≈1 in 1.5K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 1.2Mas Baerbel
- ATAustria≈1 in 42K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Bärbel itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Germany (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 116 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 1.5K (inferred from the name graph)
≈54,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Germany, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Barbel in US United States, ZA South Africa.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
weibl. Vom., Koseform von
Sources 1
- DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen
Attested across 23 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Bärbel counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE Germany | #255 | ≈54,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.5K | 2 | Bärbel | 116 |
| US United States | — | 269as Baerbel | 1 in 1.2M | 266 | Barbel | 99 |
| AT Austria | — | ≈210 est. | ≈1 in 42K | 17 | Bärbel | 24 |
| SE Sweden | — | 146 | 1 in 70K | 146 | Bärbel | 9 |
| ZA South Africa | — | ≈97 est. | ≈1 in 580K | — | Barbel | 4 |
| NO Norway | — | ≈49 est. | ≈1 in 112K | 10 | Bärbel | 3 |
| EE Estonia | — | ≈17 est. | ≈1 in 70K | 28 | — | 3 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: the de-duesseldorf-vornamen register; Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Statistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); Statistics Estonia — per-name Population Register counts (nimed); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Bärbel Inhelderb. 1913CHSwiss psychologist (1913-1997)
- Barbara Bouchetb. 1943USnot in their usual nameGerman-American actress and entrepreneuse
- Bärbel Bohleyb. 1945DEGerman artist and politician (1945-2010)
- Bärbel Wöckelb. 1955DEEast German sprinter
- Bärbel Kösterb. 1957DEEast German canoe racer (1957–2025)
- Bärbel Schäferb. 1963DEGerman television presenter
- Bärbel Mohrb. 1964DEGerman writer (1964–2010)
- Bärbel Koflerb. 1967DEGerman politician
- Bärbel Basb. 1968DEGerman politician, former President of the Bundestag
- Bärbel Stolzb. 1977DEGerman actress
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 21 sources across 11 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 146 | #6,594 |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2008 | 105 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2016 | 104 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2009 | 104 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2017 | 103 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2015 | 103 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2018 | 102 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2014 | 102 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2013 | 101 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2010 | 101 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2007 | 101 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2019 | 99 | — |
Reference works 2
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Bärbel mean, and where does it come from?
- weibl. Vom., Koseform von Recorded by DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen.
- In which country does Bärbel have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 54 thousand people named Bärbel in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled bärbel.
- How do you pronounce Bärbel?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈbɛʁbl̩/ (IPA) for German.
- Is Bärbel a male or female name?
- Bärbel is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What are other forms of the name Bärbel?
- In the etymology graph, Bobbie, Bobbi and Barb are forms of the same name in other languages; it is recorded as a short form of Barbara.
- How common is the name Bärbel?
- In Sweden, the national register counted 146 people named Bärbel, about 1 in 70 thousand residents.
- How common is Bärbel compared with other names?
- In Germany, Bärbel is the 255th most common given name of 156,202 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Bärbel?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/b%C3%A4rbelThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Bärbel” — the 255th most common given name in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.