Baran (surname)
Baran is a rare surname from various origins. It is supposed to be another variant of Baron. In Gaelic the meaning of the name Baran is: Noble warrior. In Russian the meaning of the name Baran is: The ram; forceful; virile. In Teutonic the meaning of the name Baran is: Noble fighter. In Persian, Kurdish and Turkish baran means rain is a loan word from Persian. In older Bhojpuri dialect it is misspelling of Varan, or Sanskrit Varna. In India it is not used as a surname but is/was sometimes found among descendants of indentured labourers from Bihar or Eastern UP as a misspelt form of Varna, especially in compound given names like Rambaran meaning "having the qualities of the clan of Lord Rama". It is rarely found in Mexico as a variant of Vara, from Portuguese and Spanish: from vara ‘rod’, ‘stick’, ‘yardstick’ (Late Latin vara ‘forked stick’), applied as a nickname or metonymic occupational name in any of various possible senses; it may have been given to a keeper of animals, who used a stick to urge his charges on, or to an official who was responsible for checking weights and measures or who carried a rod as a symbol of his office.
Most people with this surname come from Eastern Europe. Notable people with the surname include:
- Bernard Baran (born 1965), child care worker convicted and later exonerated of sex abuse
- Martin Baran (born 1988), Slovak football player
- Paul Baran (1926–2011), American inventor of packet switching
- Paul A. Baran (1910–1964), American economist
- Phil S. Baran, American chemist
- Ram Baran Yadav (born 1948), first President of Nepal
- Stanisław Baran (1920–1993), Polish soccer player
- Witold Baran (born 1939), Polish middle distance runner
- Zeyno Baran (born 1972), Turkish political researcher