Bareera (Name)

Bareera (transliteration: Barīra, Arabic: بريرة) is an Arabic name for girls that means “one fruit of the arāk tree”. The arāk tree (scientific name Salvadora persica) is the tree from which the Arabian toothbrush, the miswāk, is made.¹ The literal meaning of Bareera is “faithful”, “loyal”, “dutiful”, “devoted to good deeds and worship”, from root birr (“dutifulness”, “faithfulness”, “the doing of good deeds”.² The ancient Arabians, when using this name, had the fruit of the arak tree in mind, rather than the literal meaning.³

Bareera is also spelled Barira, Bareerah and Barirah.

There is one female Companion of the Prophet Muhammad named Bareera:

• Bareera freed slave of Aisha bint Abu Bakr al-Siddiq بريرة مولاة عائشة بنت أبي بكر الصديق

Below is the name Bareera written in Arabic naskh script:

Below is the name Bareera written in Arabic kufi script:

1. Ismāʿīl bin Ḥammād al-Jawharī, Tāj al-Lugha wa Ṣiḥāḥ al-ʿArabīya (d. 1003 CE), برر.
2. Sultan Qaboos Encyclopedia of Arab Names (Sultan Qaboos University, 1985), بَرِيرة.
3. Al-Fayyūmī, Al-Miṣbāḥ al-Munīr fī Gharīb al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr (d. 1368 CE), برر.