Family name origins & meanings
- African : unexplained. Compare Bah.
- Arabic : from a shortened form of Abā, accusative case of Abu ‘father’.
- Vietnamese : unexplained.
- Chinese :
from the name of the kingdom of Ba, which existed in Sichuan during
the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). Descendants of some of the
ruling class adopted the name of the kingdom as their surname. This
character still has as one of its meanings an ancient name for Sichuan
province. Researchers believe that another branch of the Ba clan came
from Shanxi province during the Han dynasty (206 bc–220
ad). Additionally, when Manchus and Mongolians came from the
north to China several hundred years ago, many adopted the surname Ba.