Barnes (name)

This article is about the surname and given name Barnes. For other uses, see Barnes (disambiguation).

Barnes is an English surname and rare given name. At the time of the British Census of 1881, the relative frequency of the surname Barnes was highest in Dorset (2.9 times the British average), followed by Wiltshire, Cumberland, Hampshire, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire, Huntingdonshire, Lancashire and Sussex.[1]

There are multiple theories of the origin of the surname; it is variously suggested to be of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, or Irish provenance. According to one etymology, the name is derived from Old English beorn (warrior), which is in turn of Old Norse origin. In another account, it was simply an occupational name for a person who works in a barn, or a topographic name for a person who lives near a barn.[2]

Surname

Given name

Fictional characters

Literature

Film

Spencer Barnes played by Charles Grodin and impersonated by Jim Belushi in the film Taking Care of Business

Television

Comics

References

  1. ↑ "Barnes in the 1881 British Census". British Surnames and Surname Profiles. Good Stuff. Archived from the original on 8 January 2009. Retrieved 3 December 2008.
  2. ↑ Hanks, Patrick, ed. (2003). Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 103. ISBN 0-19-508137-4.
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