Baran (name)

Baran is a surname from various origins. It is supposed to be another variant of Baron. In Gaelic the meaning of the name Baran is: Noble warrior. In Russian the meaning of the name Baran is: The ram; forceful; virile. In Teutonic the meaning of the name Baran is: Noble fighter. In Persian, Kurdish and Turkish baran means rain is a loan word from Persian. In older Bhojpuri dialect it is misspelling of Varan, or Sanskrit Varna. In India it is not used as a surname but is/was sometimes found among descendants of indentured labourers from Bihar or Eastern UP as a misspelt form of Varna, especially in compound given names like Rambaran meaning "having the qualities of the clan of Lord Rama". It is rarely found in Mexico as a variant of Vara, from Portuguese and Spanish: from vara ‘rod’, ‘stick’, ‘yardstick’ (Late Latin vara ‘forked stick’), applied as a nickname or metonymic occupational name in any of various possible senses; it may have been given to a keeper of animals, who used a stick to urge his charges on, or to an official who was responsible for checking weights and measures or who carried a rod as a symbol of his office.

Most people with this surname come from Poland and Slovakia, where the meaning of Baran is "a sheep male". Notable people with the surname include:

Bernard Baran (born 1965), child care worker convicted and later exonerated of sex abuse
Martin Baran (born 1988), Slovak football player
Paul Baran (1926–2011), American inventor of packet switching
Paul A. Baran (1910–1964), American economist
Phil S. Baran, American chemist
Radosław Baran, Polish wrestler
Ram Baran Yadav (born 1948), first President of Nepal
Robert Baran, Polish wrestler
Stanisław Baran (1920–1993), Polish football player
Witold Baran (born 1939), Polish middle distance runner
Zeyno Baran (born 1972), Turkish political researcher

See also