The name Barber in England,like most names generates from the job they use to do.
Barbers use to be in the olden days the modern equivalent of dentists today, hence if you went to the Barbers they would have a red and white stripe sign
outside their premises to represent blood.
In those days very few people could read and symbolism was a means that people could see
what you did.
According to "A Dictionary of Surnames" by Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges, the name is English and is an occupational name for a person who not only cut hair and shaved beards, but who also practiced surgery and pulled teeth.
BARBAR, BARBER, BARBOUR??
Of the several stocks of the Barber family which came to America from Great Britain, the information contained herein has to deal only with the descendants of Robert Barber, of Lancaster Co, PA, whose ancestry, it is generally supposed, belonged to Yorkshire, England. It has not been found possible to trace the pedigree back to the father of Robert, whose name was John.
There are several distinct families of this name in the United States. The Barbour family of Virginia, according to Mr. R. A. Brock, of Richmond, claim to be of the lineage of John Barbour, one of the earliest Scotch poets and historians, and Arch-Deacon of Aberdeen in 1357, who died in 1396. Some of this family settled in Virginia as early as 1651, but no connection can be traced to the Yorkshire stock. The spelling of the name in the earlier records of Virginia was Barber.
Another family of this name went to New Jersey, and a third settled in Rhode Island, at King's Town, previous to 1687. In the Public Records of Bucks Co, PA, mention is made of one "John Barber and Elizabeth his wife, eldest daughter of John Songhurst of Shipley, County of Sussex, England," from list of arrivals with William Penn, in 1682. The will of this John Barber is recorded in Philadelphia (Book A, p 10, Register of Wills Office). It was written on board the "Welcome," "now going for Pennsylvania," dated 7th mo. 20th, 1682, and in it allusion is made to a brother Edward, and sisters Mary, Sarah and Hannah, and to his wife Elizabeth, then with child.
According to an account of lands in Pennsylvania granted by Penn to several purchasers within the kingdom of England, Ireland, and Scotland (see PA Archives, 1st Series, Vol I, pp 10-42. Also Annals of Penna., Vol I.), John Barber received 250, and subsequently 2500, and John Songhurst 1250 (presumably acres). The former was evidently coming out to take up his grant, and is believed to have died on the voyage, or soon after his arrival. No connection between this family and the Lancaster County branch, however, can be traced.
A fifth family of the same name came to America from Scotland. There were three brothers -- James, who settled in New York, and David and John, who went to Centre County, PA. Judge John Barber, the last named, with Judge Potter, held the first court in Bellefonte, in 1800.
Of the descendants of Robert Barber, of Lancaster Co, PA, one branch went to Buffalo Valley, Northumberland Co, PA (now Union), about 1785, and from there a colony migrated to Stephenson Co, IL, in the year 1835.
