girl’s name
Barbara in Chinese
芭芭拉
bā bā lā
Barbara is usually written 芭芭拉 in Chinese, pronounced bā bā lā. It is a transliteration: the characters are chosen to sound like Barbara, not for their meaning.
Character by character
| Character | Pinyin | Tone | Meaning | Traditional |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 芭 | bā | first (high, level) tone | plantain or banana palm; fragrant | 芭 |
| 芭 | bā | first (high, level) tone | plantain or banana palm; fragrant | 芭 |
| 拉 | lā | first (high, level) tone | pull, drag; seize, hold | 拉 |
Readings and meanings come from the Unicode Han Database (Unihan). In a transliterated name, the meanings of the characters are not read as a sentence.
Questions about Barbara in Chinese
How do you write Barbara in Chinese?
Barbara is usually written 芭芭拉 in Chinese, pronounced bā bā lā. It is a transliteration: the characters are chosen to sound like Barbara, not for their meaning.
How do you pronounce 芭芭拉?
芭芭拉 is pronounced bā bā lā: bā in the first (high, level) tone, bā in the first (high, level) tone and lā in the first (high, level) tone.
How do you write Barbara in traditional Chinese?
The same way: 芭芭拉 uses no simplified characters, so it is also written 芭芭拉 in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Is 芭芭拉 a real Chinese name?
It is the usual way Chinese newspapers and books write the foreign name Barbara, so Chinese readers will recognise it as a foreign name. If you would like a name that looks Chinese, our free generator also suggests names chosen for their meaning.
How do Chinese transliterations work? Read how we choose your Chinese name.