Explore the Family Name Barak

The meaning of Barak

1. Jewish (Israeli): from the Biblical Hebrew personal name Barak, meaning ‘lightning’. The surname mainly represents a Hebraicized form of several original eastern Ashkenazic surnames having similar consonants. 2. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): acronymic surname from the first letters of the Hebrew patronymic phrase Ben Rabi Kalonymos ‘son of rabbi Kalonymos’. The personal name Kalonymos means ‘beautiful name’ in Greek. 3. Turkish and Croatian: descriptive nickname from Turkish barak ‘hairy’, which is also a loanword in Croatian. As a Turkish name this is also an ornamental name meaning ‘thick-piled, downy cloak or carpet’. 4. Croatian: from an old pet form of the personal name Bartolomej (see Bartholomew) or of its vernacular variants Bartol or Bartul. 5. Czech and Slovak (Barák): status name for someone who lived in a cottage without land, from barák ‘cottage, cabin’. 6. Hungarian: habitational name from a place called Barak. 7. Hungarian: from a pet form of either of two personal names, Bartalan (an old variant of Bertalan; see Bartholomew) or Barabás (see Barabas). 8. Muslim (Afghanistan): from the Arabic personal name Barak, derived from the Semitic root meaning ‘blessing’. See also Mubarak. Some characteristic forenames: Jewish Pinhas, Yoram, Avital, Doron, Dov, Erez, Haim, Hanoch, Moshe, Ronit, Shai, Shimon.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.