Babb
A nickname-based surname from Barbara, originally meaning “Barbara’s child” or “son of Barbara.”
The #2,820 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 24,132 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally explained as a matronymic from the female given name Barbara, with Babb as a shortened or pet form. The ultimate root of Barbara is Greek, meaning “foreign woman” or “stranger,” but the surname itself arose from the medieval English habit of forming surnames from a mother’s name. Historical surname dictionaries also connect it with forms like Babbs and Babbe.
History
Babb is recorded in medieval and later English sources, and it seems to have developed in several places independently from the popular personal name Barbara. Barbara was especially common in the Middle Ages, which helped make this surname possible. In the modern period it remains an established but relatively uncommon English surname, and it also appears in North American records through English immigration.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname writers specifically noted Babb as one of several surnames derived from Barbara, alongside forms like Betts from Elizabeth and Margetson from Margaret.
From the historical record
“(Normandy) [Barbe is a French form of Barbara : v. under Babb'] This name was Latinized de Sancta Barba. SIMCOCK = Sim (q.v.) -f the E. pet sufi.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)