Definition of "Barbara"

My mother had a maid call'd Barbara; / She was in love, and he she lov'd prov'd mad / And did forsake her; […]

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]

All in the merrye month of May / When greene buds they were swellin / Yong Jemmye Grove on his death-bed lay / For love of Barbara Allen.

17th century or before: English folk song: Barbara Allen: 1839 version by Thomas Percy

"What do you think they are going to name the baby? Anne; after her and her mamma. So very ugly a name!" "I don't think so," said Mr Carlyle. "It is simple and unpretending. I like it much. Look at the long, pretentious names in our family - Archibald! Cornelia! And yours, too - Barbara! What a mouthful they all are!" Barbara contracted her eyebrows. It was equivalent to saying that he did not like her name.

1860, Mrs Henry Wood (Ellen Wood), East Lynne, Kessinger Publishing, published 2004, page 29

"Everybody in the next generation," suggested Dick, "will be named Peter or Barbara - because at present all piquant literary characters are named Peter or Barbara."

1922, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, (please specify |book=1, 2, or 3), page 76

'Barbara?' Barr―baah―rrah. Barbarian woman. Wild. Untamed. An incredibly sexy name.

2007, Marina Lewycka, Two Caravans, Fig Tree, page 299