Barber
An occupational surname for a barber—originally someone who trimmed hair and shaved beards.
The #406 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 3,916 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Barber comes from the medieval occupation of the same name: a person who cut hair and shaved beards. The surname reflects Anglo-Norman and Old French forms such as le Barber, with a learned medieval Latin spelling Barbitonsor meaning roughly “beard-shaver.” The word itself ultimately goes back to Latin barba, “beard.”
History
The name appears early in English records in medieval occupational forms and later became hereditary, as happened with many job-based surnames. It was already common enough in the Middle Ages to be treated as a standard hereditary surname in England. Related spellings such as Barbour and Barbor also occur in historical sources.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Medieval writers sometimes used the Latinized form Barbitonsor for this surname, literally “beard-shaver.”
From the historical record
“Nantes. BARBER. BARBOR. BARBOUR. The occupation. Le Barbur. Barbator, H. R. BARBERIE. Barberi, famous of old foritsabbej' (1170), is a parish near Falaise, in Normand3^ BARCHARD is apparently identical with tlie Burchard or Burchardus of Domesd., Avhere it is used as a bajitismal name.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom