What's In A Name? Richard, Barbara

"Richard" goes back to Old High German "Richart/Ricohard," which was a compound of "ric(o)," which meant "ruler," and "hard" (modern German: "hart," see "Word History" below), which meant "hard, strong;" thus, "strong ruler." Long ago this name spread into other Germanic dialects, including Frankish.* The name then merged into the Latin-based language which was gradually absorbing Frankish to become "French," and "Ricard/Richard" was carried to England by the invading Normans, where it became highly common, including as the name of three Kings of England, the most famous being Richard I, known as "the Lionheart." In Spanish and Portuguese the name is "Ricardo."

"Barbara" goes back to Greek "barbaros," which meant "foreign, one whose speech cannot be understood." This was borrowed by Latin as "barbarus," with the same general meaning. Christianity had Saint Barbara dating to either the 3rd of 4th century, who was killed by her father for being a Christian, but he was then struck and killed by lightening. The popularity of the story spread through Christianity, and with it the name proliferated.

I consulted the following, so for more information on any of the names see, "A World Of Baby Names" by Teresa Norman, published by Perigee/Penguin Group, New York, 2003.

* Frankish was the language of the Germanic tribe the "Franks." The Franks eventually occupied much of western Europe, including all or part of what are today, the Netherlands (modern Dutch is derived from Frankish), Belgium (Flemish, a dialect of Dutch, and thus derived from Frankish, is spoken by about 60% of Belgians), Luxembourg (the local German dialect is Luxembourgish, derived from Frankish), part of Germany (part of northwestern and west central Germany and into northern Bavaria, where the dialects are derived from Frankish), and former German majority areas of the province of Lorraine (part of France), where the German dialect is from Frankish, and France, where Frankish provided the name for the country, and its language, besides contributing many words to the Latin-based French language.

WORD HISTORY:
Hard-This word goes back to Indo European "khert/khart," variant of "k(h)rat," which had the meaning "strong, firm, powerful." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "harduz," with the same general meaning. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "heard," which meant "hard, firm," and the figurative "harsh, severe." This then became "hard," with the added figurative meaning "difficult." The other Germanic languages have forms, all with about the same general and figurative meanings as their English cousin (hard, solid, tough, harsh, severe, unyielding): German and Low German Saxon "hart," ^ West Frisian "hurd," Dutch "hard," Danish and Swedish "hård," Norwegian "hard," Icelandic "harður" (also meaning "grim").

^ The Low German Saxon form was once "hard," just a guess, but the change of the ending  "d" to "t" may have come from the influence of the High German dialects.