Barbara is your aunt, the mom who called her daughters Ava and Madison. But this exotic nickname spin might just revive her from a middle aged slump.
Thanks to Jana for suggesting Basia as Baby Name of the Day.
In Polish, Basia is a pet name for Barbara. The pronunciation is a bit too close to bash for some – BAH sha. But with the equally Slavic Sasha growing up in the White House and Anya leaping up the popularity charts, it isn’t unreasonable to look around and consider what other names we can import from Warsaw and Moscow, Kiev and Prague. After all, Tanya spent a decade in the US Top 100 during the 1970s.
The saintly Barbara – she was a third century martyr, though there’s speculation that her story is too fantastic to be believed – spent the years 1927 through 1958 in the US Top Ten, peaking at #2. Many of us have a beloved Barb on our family trees. The first President Bush married a Barbara; the second President Bush passed the name on to his daughter. But few parents are doing the same today. As of 2009, Barbara had fallen to #656.
Despite her long history, it is more challenging to update Barbara than some other names. American parents called their girls Barbie and Babs and Bobbie, but it is a relatively small stable of nicknames compared to Margaret, Elizabeth, or Katherine. International variations also tend to look an awful lot like Barbara – the Czech Barbora, the Russian Varvara.
The -sia ending is unfamiliar in the US, and tempts some to say bah SEE uh. Other Polish diminutives share the form, like Gosia from Margaret and Kasia from Katherine.
There’s a second possible source for Basia. The Hebrew Bithiah, Bethia, or Batyah – famously worn by the Egyptian princess who rescued and raised baby Moses – might also be a source for Basia, as the name was simplified from three syllables to two.
Plenty of notables have answered to Barbara. Look her up in a baby name guide and you’ll see that she means foreign – though you probably won’t hear that she shares her root with the word barbarian.
The Basia who might come to mind is the one pictured above, singer Basia Trzetrzelewska, though she uses only her first name professionally. In the 1980s and 90s, her recordings fared well internationally. In her video from “Time and Tide,” she starts out by correcting a guy who calls her Basey. “It’s Basia,” she says. If that doesn’t ring any bells, click on “Cruising for Bruising” – probaby her biggest single.
Basia is still performing, but if you live in Arizona, you’re more likely to think of the grocery store chain, Bashas, founded by nineteenth century Lebanese immigrant Najeeb Basha and his sons.
There are other options to reinvent Barbara – the medieval Barbary, though all of her associations are tainted, from the slave trade on the Barbary Coast of Africa to San Francisco’s nineteenth century red-light district. Elaboration Barbarella might hold promise, if not for Jane Fonda’s sexy sci fi heroine from 1968’s cult classic film by the same name.
But if you’re looking for a Slavic heritage choice, Basia could prove surprisingly wearable.
This is a relatively common name among Orthodox Jews. “Basya” is a Yiddish-ized version of “Batya” (which is actually two syllables in Hebrew, not three).
My beloved grandmother was named Barbara, and I’ve been wondering if there was a viable option out there for ways to honor her with a daughter’s name, because, like most people of my generation, I’m not so fond of Barbara.
You know what I’ve considered as a way to honor Barbara? Xenia. It’s a bit more of a stretch. But both are from Greek, and even though the name Xenia is usually translated as “hospitality,” the Greek word Xenos means “foreigner” or “foreigner-friend” (according to Wikipedia, at least). So Xenia is the hospitality shown to foreigner-friends.
But Basia is a neat option, too!
Just a couple of days after you posted this and I found a Canadian singer/songwriter whose music I’m quite enjoying, and yes, her name is Basia. Basia Bulat to be exact: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basia_Bulat
I have considered this one as both my mom and my mother in law are named Barbara (my MIL was called Basia growing up) and it would be nice to honour them. However I don’t really like the sound as it seems close to Bash a for me. It is a dilemma though. I like the sound of Babette better but it does not seem classy to me or elegant to me.
I really like Barbara used in full, I’m not sure that it needs a nickname.
Actually, I think Barbara would have named her daughters Jennifer and Amanda and her granddaughters would be Ava and Madison, but maybe that is just in my world.
I like Barbara with the nn Basia! It’s one I hadn’t thought of. I usually hate nickname-names, but Basia seems like it can stand on it’s own, too.
You’re probably right, Smismar – Barbara peaked at #2 from 1937 to 1944, so yes – she’s more likely Ava’s grandma. The name stayed in the Top 100 through the late 1970s, and I know some of those younger Barbaras, so I tend to forget they’re the exception.
I also like Babette as a variant on the Barbara theme.
I forgot Babette! It’s a lovely nickname.
Babette is actually german/french. I don’t think it really is a nickname for Barbara but I still love it.
I can’t say that I’m a fan. Basia makes me think of Don Cheadle’s character from the Ocean movies. Yes, he was called Basher, but with the cockney accent he put on it came out sounding like “Bash-uh”. It probably doesn’t help that I was completely out of the music scene for most of the 90s, so I’m not familiar with the artist.
Barbara has a certain charm of it’s own, but it does read far too middle-aged to be in much use today.
I LOVED Time and Tide in college! Very interesting story on this name, would not have guessed that it is a nn for Barbara. Not a favorite for me, but I do like the exotic feel.
I am surprised you did this. I do prefer Basia to Barbie, but I know so many personally (I grew up in a Polish neighborhood) that it does not sound all that exotic to me. I used to love it as a child, now it just sounds dull. I think there are prettier Polish names out there.