Barbara 芭芭拉 bā bā lā

Character by character

How it reads

This is a transliteration: the characters were chosen because they sound like Barbara. Chinese readers will hear your English name in it, which is the point — you will see this spelling in news, subtitles, and sports commentary. It is not a name a Chinese family would sit down and choose, and it does not carry a wish the way a native given name usually does.

Other spellings

Barbara is also written 笆笆拉. Different sources pick different characters for the same syllables; the version on this page is the one our sources list most often.

Using it as your name

Written this way, 芭芭拉 works as a given name on its own, and you can add a surname in front of it. If you would rather have a name chosen for meaning — one that reads as Chinese rather than as an imported spelling — the Finder builds options from characters with documented meanings and shows you where each one comes from. Already using a Chinese name? Check it for tones, homophones, and famous-name collisions.

Source

ECDICT / common transliteration · Barbara

Spellings on this page are collected from published lists and from names real foreigners use in China. They are a reference, not a recommendation: a name you can explain is better than a name that merely matches a dictionary.