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Last name origins & meanings:

  1. Scottish: habitational name from Bara, the name of an old manor and parish in East Lothian.
  2. Polish, Czech, and Slovak (Bára): from a reduced vernacular form of the Latin personal name Bartolomaeus, Polish Bartłomiej, Czech Bartoloměj (see Bartholomew),
  3. Hungarian: from a short form of the personal name Barabás (see Barabas).
  4. French: nickname for a quarrelsome or deceitful person, from Old French barat ‘commerce’, ‘dealings’, a derivative of barater ‘to barter’. Compare Barratt.
  5. Aragonese: habitational name from Bara in Uesca province, Aragon.
  6. Catalan (Barà): respelling of Catalan Berà in Tarragona, Catalonia (see Bera).