Barbara Palvin, Barbara Mori and Other Famous People Named Barbara

Women called Barbara have become famous through the ages for their brains, beauty, and talent but there are not so very many famous people named Barbara. Whilst Barbara is an old name with a long history, it has never been a very common name.

The celebrities, stars, politicians and Queen, all called Barbara, that I've selected are Barbara Palvin, (model), Barbra Streisand (singer), Barbara Windsor (actress), Barbara of Portugal (Queen of Spain), Barbara Bush (wife of George Bush), Saint Barbara, Barbara Dickson (singer), Barbara Taylor Bradford and Barbara Cartland (writers), Barbara Castle (politician), Barbara Bui (designer), Barbara Mori (actress), Barbara Rae and Barbara Hepworth (artists - like me but much more famous!) and I'll be adding more famous people called Barbara as I discover them.

I hope you enjoy my choice of famous people who have little in common other than their fame and the fact that they share the name Barbara.

Barbara Palvin is a Hungarian fashion model. She was born on the 8th October 1993 and was first discovered on the streets of Budapest in 2006 aged just 13. She moved to Asia and became a great success featuring on many of the top magazines and working for top designers and fashion companies. More recently, In February 2012, she landed the job as an ambassador for L'Oreal Paris.

Name gifts for Barbara that you can personalize to make them extra-special

I'm an artist as well as a Barbara and so when I began a series of designs for gifts I started with my own name. You can buy these gifts from my Zazzle store LouLou_arts - everything from handbags to badges via aprons and stickers. Why not take a look and see if you can find something extra-special for your very special Barbara?

Barbara Mori Ochoa, an Uruguayan-Mexican model, film and television actress, was born on the 2nd February 1978.

She began her career as a fashion model, later she became an actress when she co-starred in 1997 on the smash TV-hit Mirada De Mujer with TV Azteca; then, she starred in the soap opera Azul Tequila. Her big break came in 2004, with the telenovela Rubí (a remake of the 1968 series) by rival network Televisa, in which she played the main character. She also has starred in several self-produced films and music videos.

We all want to give our child the best start possible in life and one of the first major choices you make for your child, often months before her birth, is choosing a name.

Choosing a baby name can be a bit of a minefield. There are so many things to think about from class connotations to mad initials - don't call your daughter Barbara Anne Day, or Barbara Olivia Good! Take your time and invest in a good baby name book to make sure you choose a really cracking name.

There's nothing like a baby name book to inspire and inform - after all your name says such a lot about you.

Full of all the usual good advice, I chose this book because it also showed the popularity of a name over time. I'd become aware of the 'Albert' factor. In the UK, when I was young, everyone named Albert was about 70. the name had suffered from a popularity blip (Prince Albert?) and then, being so popular, everyone suddenly gave the name a really wide birth. Albert is still not very popular, but I expect it will pick up now that my generation, with all those 'Albert' associations, is well past childbearing age.

Now, when my son was conceived, I made a list of names that I liked, and I managed to choose 5 out of 6 of the top names for boys that year - the Zeitgeist is very powerful. I immediately crossed them off my list. I didn't want my son in a class full of Thomases and I knew that a popular name would lead to a name desert afterwards, leaving all the Thomases marooned on a time-blip island.

Barbara Streisand became Barbra Streisand

I remember Barbara Streisand being a huge star when I was but a girl, and she has been an phenomenal success both as a singer and actress. She has a strange sort of beauty - she is not so very far away from dish-faced Marilyn Monroe and there was talk of her being pushed to have her nose 'done' - thankfully she resisted.

Barbara Joan Streisand was born in New York on April 24, 1942. Her father was a teacher and her mother a school secretary. She rose like a shooting star from these humble beginnings. Some of her best loved films include Funny Girl, Hello, Dolly, The Way We Were and A Star Is Born.

One thing that I hate about her is her name! Why spell it like that? Well, the answer is that she hated her name and wanted to alter it. "I hated the name, but I refused to change it," she said.

Barbara Taylor Bradford was born in Leeds, UK on 10 May 1933. (I was born in York not so far away). Her first novel was 'A Woman of Substance' (1979) has sold over 30 million copies worldwide and is one of the top-ten bestselling novels of all-time. She has written 27 novels to date (2013) I have to admit that I've never read one of her novels!

Her last book is 'Letter From A Stranger' (2011 / 2012) and her latest novel 'Secrets From The Past' was published on 28 February 2013 in the UK / 9 April in N America.

She has been awarded an OBE

Barbara Cartland is a writer of romantic fiction and the author of many a bodice-ripper

And when I say many I mean many! Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland, was born in Birmingham UK in 1901 and was to become one of the most prolific authors of the 20th century with 723 novels. She made it into the Guinness World Records for publishing the most novels in a single year. Her speciality was romantic fiction and she is said to have sold more than 750 million copies with some sources citing over 1 billion copies. Who's counting - it's a lot!

Her first novel was Jigsaw (1922).

Wife of George Bush

Barbara Pierce Bush was born in New York in 1925 and is best known as the wife of George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, both US presidents. She was the First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993. In Britain she was appreciated as a first lady who actually looked her age and normal women felt that they could relate to her.

Barbara Bush met George Herbert Walker Bush at age 16 they were married in 1945. Together they had 6 children of which 5 survive.

A supporter of the cause of universal literacy she founded the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy while First Lady and continues to promote this cause.

Barbara Kingsolver (1955 - ) is an American novelist and writer. She was brought up in Kentucky, has degrees in biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona and then she began her career as a freelance writer. She has written several well-known novels including 'The Poisonwood Bible' (nominated for the Pulitzer Prize) and non-fiction such as 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle' about her efforts to eat local food only.

Prizes include the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award 2011, the Orange Prize for Fiction 2010

Her books touch on such issues as social justice, biodiversity and humans, human communities and their environments. Every one of her books published since 1993 are on the New York Times Best Seller list suggesting that many people find her books a jolly good read!

Journalist, author, and television show presenter

Barbara Jill Walters (1929 - ) is an American journalist and television show presenter. Host to many breakfast-time television shows such as 'Today' and 'The View' and 20/20, she was co-host the ABC Evening News.

Half Vietnamese, half French designer Barbara Bui was born in Paris in 1956. She appeared on the fashion scene in 1983 when she opened Kabuki, a boutique on the rue de Turbigo in Paris and since then she's never looked back.

In 2004 she capitalised on her fashion name by launching Barbara Bui Le Parfum which has been descrited as descrete, sensual and intimate.

Barbara Pym (1913 – 1980) was an English novelist who wrote gentle novels about parish life populated with characters based on the people she knew. Her career began at St Hilda's College, Oxford where she studied English, and she went on to work at the International African Institute in London. Her writing career began with stories to women's magazines then in 1950 she published her first novel, 'Some Tame Gazelle'. Other novels include 'Excellent Women' (1952), 'Jane and Prudence' (1953), 'Less than Angels' (1955), 'A Glass of Blessings' (1958), 'No Fond Return of Love' (1961), 'Quartet in Autumn' (1977), 'The Sweet Dove Died' (1978), 'A Few Green Leaves' (1980), 'Crampton Hodnet' (1940 but not published until 1985) and 'An Unsuitable Attachment' (written 1963).

Barbara Broccoli OBE is a brave woman taking on the family business - James Bond - from her father "Cubby" Broccoli . Along with her brother, Michael G Wilson, Barbara Broccoli is charged with dragging Bond into the 21st Century and by all accounts she's carried it off marvelously.but her latest venture is with the theater. She is the producer of 'Strangers On A Train' in the West End of London. Barbara Broccoli spoke on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour to Jenni Murray about nepotism, the Bond girl and why you shouldn't talk to strangers.

Loren Barbara Broccoli is the producer of the stage play, 'Stranger on a Train'. Based on the Patricia Highsmith novel, which takes the idea that anyone is capable of committing murder. Broccoli travels a lot and feels that she can empathise with the tale that revolves around two strangers who meet on a train with rather chilling consequences.

Broccoli - inherited a whole bucket-full of talent and she bravely took over from her father to whom she was very close. Broccoli tells how he was 51 when she was born and she was always aware that she wanted to spend as much time as possible with him and through this closeness she developed a passion for film. "It's a brutal business," she tells us. When asked if she owes her position as Bond producer to nepotism Broccoli admitted that there is an element of nepotism and wasn't sure that she would have been able to get into it without her family connections but that only spurred her on to make a good job of her position.

When asked about her influence on the Bond girl and why she killed off Judi Dench Broccoli conceded that although it was heartbreaking they felt that they had to take Bond to the worst possible place and Judi Dench had to be sacrificed for the story. Would a female Bond work? Barbara Broccoli doesn't think that a female Bond would work. She does think a female spy story could be exciting but the part would have to be written specifically for a woman because, she thinks, women are more multi-faceted.

Barbara is herself a Bond fan (how could she not be?) "I love seeing a Bond film," says Barbara Broccoli. Her favourite Bond movie is "always the one I'm making". Her favourite moment? Daniel Craig coming out of the sea is an iconic moment. Do you agree?

Born Barbara Ruth Dickson in Dunfermline, Scotland in 1947, Barbara Dickson is best known for her song "I Know Him So Well". Since then Dickson has augmented her singing career with acting, twice winning the Olivier Award. She has starred in the musical 'Spend Spend Spend', and Willy Russell's 'Blood Brothers'.She played Anita Braithwaite in Band of Gold on TV.

Saint Barbara originated in Nicomedia now Turkey or in Heliopolis in Egypt in the 3rd century. Her feast Day is December 4 but she was removed from the liturgical calendar of the Roman Rite in 1969 because of doubts about the historical truth of her story. (Read more about the legend of Saint Barbara here.)

Saint Barbara was the daughter of an over-protective rich father called Dioscorus who locked her in a towerwhere she became a Christian. In pictures you can see her portrayed with chains and a tower. Saint Barbara is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers and is the patron saint of armorers, and people who work with explosives (like miners and artillery workers) because of her legend's association with lightning, and also of mathematicians.

I grew up with Barbara Stanwyck.

Chirpy cockney actress Barbara Ann Windsor,was born Barbara Ann Deeks in 1937 in Shoreditch, London. She is best know for her saucy roles in the low-budget Brit Carry On films but has recently popped up again as Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders - irrepressible is the word that springs to mind.

Barbara really is a royal name

This is a portrait of Queen Barbara of Portugal, her full name was Maria Madalena Barbara Xavier Leonor Teresa Antónia Josefa - what a mouthful! She was born in 1711 and died in 1758). At the age of eighteen she married Ferdinand VI of Spain and so became the Queen of Spain.

Creator of Biba

I am a Biba baby. As a northern English teenager our Mecca was London and top of the list on our things to do list was to visit Biba. Do you remember those deep plum colours and dark (nay black) smoky eyes? What I didn't know until now was that the figure at the head of Biba was my namesake, Barbara Hulanicki.

Barbara Hulanicki was born in Poland just before the Second World War and had an idyllically happy and uneventful childhood which came to an abrupt end when her father, who was a diplomat, was hustled out of the house with barely time to say goodbye to his family and was assassinated.

On Sunday 08 December 2013 Barbara Hulanicki chose her Desert Island Discs on the famous BBC Radio 4 show and told her life story to Kirsty Young.

Her Biba fame rests on the fabulous fashions that young people could actually afford. Twiggy says that "she changed fashion in England singlehandedly".

The Biba story began, according to Barbara who had trained as a fashion designer, when one of her little pink gingham dresses featured in a newspaper in 1963. The dress cost only £3 and by next morning there were hundreds of orders. Biba was born. By the seventies the London department store was in full swing but it was not to last when she fell out with her.

She says "Now whenever I finish something I take some photographs and say 'goodbye'. When you lose everything, you realise that the only thing you have is what's in your head."

Today she still works in the area of fashion but she is also an illustrator and interior designer.

Fighting for women in Law, banking and business

Lady Barbara Judge (CBE) is famous for getting ahead in the male-dominated worlds of law, banking and business and for fighting to get other women up there too. some of her success can be put down to her excellent connections, she's Chair of the Pension Protection Fund and chairman Emerita of the UK Atomic Energy Authority.

In an interview with Jane Garvey on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour, Barbara Judge advises us about how to be taken seriously, tells us about her inspirational mother and tackles the knotty problem of the working mother.

This song was from before my time (even) but I've always loved it. A really summery, feel-good oldie.

Barbara Anne Castle is one of my heroines - a woman who fought for the rights of others less able to fight for themselves and she was especially well known for supporting workers' rights and equality form women.

She was born Barbara Betts in 1910 and died in 2002 and from 1945 to 1979 was ) was a Member of Parliament for Blackburn for the British Labour Party. She was the longest-serving woman MP in the history of the House of Commons (a record that was broken in 2007 by Gwyneth Dunwoody). From 1979 to 1989 Barbara Castle was the Member of the European Parliament for Greater Manchester. She served in the Cabinet under Prime Minister Harold Wilson as Secretary of State for Employment, Secretary of State for Social Affairs, and First Secretary of State amongst others. Eventually she became Baroness Castle of Blackburn

Author

She is an editor of the History Workshop Journal, and she is a director of the Raphael Samuel History Centre. At present she is a Professor of Humanities at Queen Mary University of London.

Barbara Taylor, British author, has written a potent and personal book The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in our Times

The Last Asylum tells the story of Barbara Taylor's struggle with mental illness and her experience of the psychiatric health care system in the UK.

It begins with Barbara Taylor in the beautiful and tranquil Princess Park Manor in Friern Barnet, North London -but Barbara's experience of this site was as the Middlesex County Pauper Lunatic Aslyum. 1980s Barbara Taylor was amongst the 3,000 patients who lived in that asylum.

In a BBC Radio 4 interview on Woman's Hour, Barbara described how she has undergone 21 years of psycho-therapy and how she herself was a voluntary resident in the Last Asylum. Closed in 1993. She was witness to an historical event and the revolution in mental health care and wanted to record it as a first hand witness.

In the interview she tells the painful story of her psycho-therapy which was her lifeline - it was a matter for survival. It taught her to accept herself and to deal with her overwhelming anxiety.

The mental hospital was a bitter-sweet experience of abuse and bullying but also friendship and support. We have lost this 'care' system and not replaced it with a similar sheltering and nurturing environment.

Happily, Barbara is now totally recovered, or at least as sane as the rest of us.

Barbara Taylor's other books include Eve and the New Jerusalem a biography of Mary Wollstonecraft - thinker, feminist and mother of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, and On Kindnessco-written with the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips.

Buy her book The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in our Times from Amazon.co.uk

As an artist myself I couldn't resist including a couple of my favourite artist Barbaras. One, Barbara Rae, a painter from the Scottish colourist tradition (I was trained at Edinburgh School of Art) and the other the famous modern sculptor, Barbara Hepworth.

1. Barbara Pompili
2. Barbara Berlusconi
3. Barbara Carlotti

Barbara Kingsolver, Barbara Bush, Barbara Stanwyck, Barbara Palvin and Barbara Bui. I've added the band Crucified Barbara even though it's not a person - still it is famous and is named Barbara.

Barbara Stanwyck

Barbara Palvin

Barbara Bui

I've added the band Crucified Barbara even though it's not a person.

Most of my basic information came for Wikipedia, so I won't include all the links to that site.