Barnabas

name

The verdict

“Barnabas” is uncommon French (frequency #80,911 among 4,251 “B” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#80,911
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Barnabé.

Corpus desk

Index FR-barnabas · Barnabas · French

Barnabas · rank #80,911 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #80,911
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH barista

Nearest frequency peer: barista (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rangs de longue queue près de « Barnabas »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « Barnabas » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Barnabas
PropertyValue
HeadwordBarnabas
LanguageFrench
Part of speechProper noun
Letters8
Frequency rank#80,911
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « Barnabas » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.Barnabastombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « barista » (#80,910), « barbiche » (#80,909), « bassines » (#80,913). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « Barnabas » est au #80,911. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Barnabas is uncommon French at frequency #80,911 among 4,251 “B” headwords, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Barnabé.".

No misspelling variants are generated for Barnabas in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is Barnabas, spelled B-A-R-N-A-B-A-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Barnabé.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how Barnabas appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation, ) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Barnabas"?
"Barnabas" is spelled B-A-R-N-A-B-A-S.
What does "Barnabas" mean?
As a proper noun, "Barnabas" means: Barnabé.
What language does "Barnabas" come from?
"Barnabas" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Barnabas", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list