Baber
A mainly English surname, probably from Babergh in Suffolk, though some families may have taken it from a local place-name or from later folk-etymology.
The #6,244 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 56,402 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The most likely explanation is that Baber is a habitational surname from Babergh in Suffolk. That place-name is generally taken to mean something like a bank or hill spur, though the surname itself is simply formed as “of Babergh/Baber.” Some 19th-century writers also noted a small place called Baber in Cornwall, and a few families later claimed descent from the Mughal founder Babur, but that is usually treated as a family tradition rather than the main origin of the English surname.
History
Baber appears in medieval English records and was especially noted by Bardsley as a familiar Devon and Cornwall surname. The name is still most strongly associated with the southwest of England, though it also occurs elsewhere in Britain. Lower already treated Baber as probably locational in the 19th century, and that remains the standard view.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some bearers of the name later liked to connect it with the Mughal emperor Babur, but surname scholars usually consider that a much later and less likely explanation.
From the historical record
“JjABB. See Female Christian Xaraes. BABER. Probably from the hundred of Babergh, in Suffolk, though some of the name aiTect a descent from the Sultan Baber or Babour, the founder of the Mogul dynasty in Hindostan, A.D. 1525 I BABIXGTON. The family traditions point to Normandy as the .source of the race. The name…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom