barnes

B3A1R1N1E1S1
UK/bɑː(ɹ)nz/US/bɑɹnz/

proper noun

A surname.

OriginOld Norse Bjǫrn ← Old English Beorn ← Frankish *berō →
CommonScrabble 8
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Meanings

barnes1

noun
  1. pluralplural of barne

Barnes2

proper nounBarnes (countable and uncountable, plural Barneses)

plural Barneses

  1. countableuncountableA surname.
    1 more example

    Riley Barnes, nominated to serve as assistant secretary of State for democracy, human rights and labor, revealed his dangerous proclivities to Kaine in his opening statement when he said that “all men are created equal because our rights come from God, our creator; not from our laws, not from our governments.”

    2025 September 6, Jonathan Turley, “Tim Kaine’s Constitutional blasphemy”, in The Hill
    1. countableuncountableAn English toponymic surname transferred from the common noun for someone who owned, lived in, or worked in a barn.
    2. countableuncountableA habitational surname from Middle English for someone from the place of the same name in Surrey.
  2. A placename
    1. countableuncountableA suburb of London in the borough of Richmond upon Thames, Greater London, England, originally a town in Surrey (OS grid ref TQ2276).
    2. countableuncountableAn inner suburb and ward in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England (approx OS grid ref NZ3856).
    3. countableuncountableA minor city in Washington County, Kansas, United States.
    4. countableuncountableA small town in the far south of the Riverina, New South Wales, Australia.

Origin

  1. Hebrewפַּרְנָס“leader of a Jewish community, provider”
  2. Yiddishפּרנס
  3. Frankish*berō“bear”
  4. Old EnglishBeorn
  5. Old NorseBjǫrn
  6. EnglishBarnes

* As an English surname, from the place on the bank of the Thames, derived from the root of the noun barn. * Also as an English surname, variant of Barne, from both a Middle English personal name from Old Norse Bjǫrn and Old English Beorn, and from the noun barn (“child”). Semantically compare Child. * As an Irish surname, Anglicized from Ó Bearáin (literally “descendant of Bearán”), a byname from bior (“spear”). * As a French surname, variant of Bernes, from a short form of a Germanic name derived from Frankish *berō (“bear”), similar to Bernhard. * As a Jewish surname, variant of Parnes, from Yiddish פּרנס (prns), from Hebrew פַּרְנָס (“leader of a Jewish community, provider”).

More words from Old Norse, Old English, Frankish

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Sounds the same

barns

Anagrams

SerbanBernas
Cite this entry
APA

barnes. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barnes

MLA

“barnes.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barnes. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “barnes,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barnes.

Source: barnes on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.