Originally Posted by b.zang
When I was a child I didn't like the fact that my name means "foreign, stranger". Then my mother told me that a woman we knew had changed her name from Barbara to Caroline and I was insulted that she no longer wanted the name Barbara. Now my oldest friends and family call me Barbara and my newer acquaintances call me Barb. I grew up thinking it was an unusual name, but widened my world and discovered it's quite common :)
Mine is Barbara too. I didn't have any nicknames growing up except that people shorten it to Barb which I don't like. I can be quite rude to anyone who calls me Barbie!
I taught for 30 years and in all that time I taught only 1 Barbara. I think it is sort of an old-fashioned name of the 30's and 40's and the other Barbara's I know are all about my age or older. I was named after my aunt.