Someone from Barbados is called a Barbadian, or sometimes a Bajan. Barbados and the Barbadian diaspora represents a number of distinct ethnic groups, and so not all Barbadians consider themselves to be Barbadians first and foremost—they may instead define themselves by their ethnic identity. Either way, a descendant or citizen of Barbados is a Barbadian.

Ethnic and national identities are rarely simple matters.

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Barbados may be a small nation, but that small population still represents a wide range of identities, whether ethnic, national, cultural or religious.

Today, we’re going to look at how we can define the people of Barbados and the wider Barbadian diaspora.

What are people from Barbados called?

People from Barbados are called Barbadians, or sometimes Bajan.

I’ll get into the distinction between these two terms in more detail later, but for now let’s just say that Bajan is considered more of a colloquialism—the standard term for someone from Barbados is a Barbadian.

But national identity is never as simple as this.

To simplify it somewhat, there are two main ways we can define someone as a Barbadian: whether simply because they are a citizen of the country, or because of their ethnic identity.

If you have Barbadian citizenship, whether you were born there to native peoples or immigrated there, you are a Barbadian in one sense or another.

Someone’s national identity is quite important for various things like legal matters in the modern day, so we all have this sense that everyone comes from a particular country.

But on the other hand, Barbadian is not the final word for many Barbadians on their identity.

Multiple ethnic groups comprise the Barbadian population.

The vast majority of Barbadians are of African and mixed-race descent.

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However, there is also a sizeable population of white Barbadians, of Irish and British descent.

You then also have populations of Syrian, Lebanese, Indian, Chinese and Jewish people in Barbados.

Any of these groups may feel multiple things to be true at once about their identity.

From a nationality point of view they are Barbadian, but ethnically they are not.

Again, though, the simple answer is that someone from Barbados is called a Barbadian.

Any individual of Barbadian descent or even someone who lives there may feel there is something else at the forefront of their identity ahead of Barbadian, but even if it is only in a strictly legal, nationality sense, they are still in some way Barbadian.

Where does the name “Barbados” come from?

We are not completely sure which is the precise origin of the name Barbados, but it is either Spanish or Portuguese and was the name used by the early colonists and slave traders who discovered the Island for Europeans.

Either the Portuguese os Barbados or the Spanish los Barbados, both of which meant “the bearded ones”.

There are multiple explanations for this name.

One is that the term refers to the hanging roots of the native fig trees on the island.

Another was that there was a population of bearded Caribs living on Barbados when the Spanish arrived.

One, slightly more fantastical explanation is that the term invoked the island’s surrounding coral being splashed with frothy waves, like a beard.

Importantly, Barbados was called something entirely different by its native inhabitants before the settlers arrived.

It was originally called Ichirouganaim, according to the descendants of the indigenous Arawakan speaking people.

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The translation is not completely clear, but this term relates to teeth in some way—where the “red land with teeth” or “with teeth outside,” again in reference to the coral surrounding the island.

Where do Barbadians live?

The Barbadian diaspora also represents a large number of Barbadian people who may themselves feel multiple things to be true of their identity.

With only around 284,000 Barbadians living in Barbados itself, the total diaspora represents a considerable proportion of the global Barbadian population.

There are around 65,000 Barbadians living in the United States, 37,000 in Canada, and 18,000 in the United Kingdom.

Smaller populations exist in non-English speaking nations, such as the 5,000 Barbadians found in Brazil, or the small numbers found in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Australia, and Guyana.

Any of these people may feel themselves to be both Barbadian and the nationality of the country they have immigrated to.

Is it Barbadian or Bajan?

Both Barbadian and Bajan mean essentially the same thing—someone from Barbados.

However, the simple way to explain the distinction between the two terms is just that Barbadian is the standard term and Bajan is more of a colloquial term.

Most will use the terms interchangeably, whether for a native, ethnic Barbadian or just for a citizen of the country.

It can also be used for a Barbadian living outside of Barbados.

If at any time you are not sure, then you can always ask—it may be that any given individual has a preference for a particular term over the other, and so you should always try to respect that in speaking about a people and a nation.

So, again, this sort of question is rarely a simple one.

The simple answer, though, is that a citizen or descendant of Barbados is a Barbadian, at least to some extent.

Any given Barbadian may feel themselves to be something else entirely, though, whether defined by their ethnic identity or by the country to which they have moved, or to which their immediate ancestors migrated.

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