Bar
org · Latin script
Meaning: probably to ahd. bar 'man'; hard to separate from BÄR
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Bar is a name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in India than in any other country.
- ZASouth Africa≈1 in 1.4Kas Beer(inferred from the name graph)
- TRTürkiye≈1 in 14Kas Bor
- INIndia1 in 32Kas Bora
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 Bar 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.
- India (measured from records)
- 4 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 360 (measured from records)
- 1 in 3.3K (inferred from the name graph)
41,715 named Bora
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Switzerland
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Beer in US United States, ZA South Africa, CH Switzerland and 1 more, Bari in IN India and Bor in TR Türkiye.
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)
probably to ahd. bar 'man'; hard to separate from BÄR
Sources 1
- Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Attested across 27 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Bar 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IN India | — | 41,715as Bora | 1 in 32K | 42K | Bari | 140 |
| ZA South Africa | #213 | ≈40,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.4K | — | Beer | 106 |
| IT Italy | — | ≈10,000 est. | ≈1 in 6K | 9 | Beer | 20 |
| US United States | — | 8,252as Bear | 1 in 40K | 9K | Beer | 360 |
| TR Türkiye | — | ≈5,900 est. | ≈1 in 14K | — | Bor | 52 |
| CH Switzerland | — | 2,572 | 1 in 3.3K | 2.6K | Beer | 47 |
| NO Norway | — | 1,280as Bore | 1 in 4.3K | 1.3K | — | 10 |
| SK Slovakia | — | 723as Bari | 1 in 7.5K | 723 | — | 8 |
41,715 people counted by Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls, counting the spelling bora. 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: Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population); JÚĽŠ SAV — Databáza priezvisk na Slovensku (surname database, 1995 census); ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend). 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).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Bar is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In English, A solid, more or less rigid object of metal or wood with a uniform cross-section smaller than its length.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Italian, Variante di Bardo, dal germanico, «forte, audace».
as a nameDizionario Dei Nomi e Cognomi Italiani
Rabat, Bordeaux, Israel, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires
as a nameDicionario Sefaradi De SobrenomesDictionary Of Sephardic Surnames Inclusive Cristaos-Novos, Conversos, Marranos, Italianos,…
In German, Aramaic bar 'son'; common name element
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
In German, Aramaic element meaning 'son of'
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Jacques Barb. 1921FRFrench film producer (1921–2009)
- Luis Barboob. 1927ESnot in their usual nameSpanish actor (1927-2001)
- Zvi Barb. 1935ILIsraeli politician
- Moshe Bar-Asherb. 1939MAIsraeli linguist
- Hanania Baerb. 1943ILnot in their usual nameIsraeli cinematographer
- Ronen Barb. 1965ILhead of Shin Bet
- Noma Barb. 1973ILA London-based graphic artist,
- Sendi Barb. 1976ILIsraeli actress and model
- Bar Palyb. 1982ILAmerican actress
- Bar Refaelib. 1985ILIsraeli model
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).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 48 sources across 26 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IN India | Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls | — | 1.6K | #3,662 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 1.2K | #21,564 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 999 | #24,890 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 759 | #29,359 |
| IN India | Instate — India surnames by state (real counts) from electoral rolls | — | 336 | #2,022 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 230 | #21,948 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 228 | #21,948 |
| NO Norway | SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population) | — | 48 | #26,695 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 28 | #28,759 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2015 | 6 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2020 | 5 | — |
| IN India | naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls) | 2013 | 3 | — |
Reference works 8
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Hoffman, Polish Surnames: Origins and Meanings (2nd ed., 2012)
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
- Cognomix.it (Nomix s.r.l.) — Italian surname origin dictionary
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 Bar mean, and where does it come from?
- probably to ahd. bar 'man'; hard to separate from BÄR Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
- In which country does Bar have the most bearers?
- In India, the national register counted about 42 thousand people named Bora, more than in any other country we hold.
- Where is Bar most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Bar is densest in Switzerland — about 1 in 3.3 thousand people — even though India holds more of our records for it.
- How common is the name Bar?
- In Switzerland, the national register counted 2,572 people named Bar in 2024, about 1 in 3.3 thousand residents.
- How common is Bar compared with other names?
- In South Africa, Bar is the 213th most common surname of 285,788 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Bar?
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/barThe 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, “Bar” — the 213th most common surname in South Africa. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.