The given name Barak, also spelled Baraq, from the root B-R-Q, is a Hebrew name meaning "lightning". It is a Biblical name, given after the Israelite general Barak (ברק Bārāq).
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B-R-Q
The Semitic root B-R-Q has the meaning "to shine"; "lightning". The Hebrew name ברק Bārāq is biblical, given after Barak, a military commander in the Book of Judges.
The Arabic word for "lightning" is Arabic: بُراق burāq. The epithet Barcas of the Punic general Hamilcar is from the same root, as is the name of Al-Buraq, the miraculous steed of Islamic mythology.
The given name is mostly Jewish, and predominantly found in Israel. However, it has occasionally been used by Anglo-Saxon Protestants in the early modern period, when there was a fashion for given names from the Hebrew Bible, as in the name of Barak Longmate, an 18th-century English genealogist.
People with the name
Notable people with the name include: