Dictionary of Family Names

BARBON, BAREBONE, BAREBONES, BARBONE.   A local name meaning (1) "of Barbon," a chapelry in the old parish of Kirkby Lonsdale.  This originated Barbon and Barben; (2) Barbourne, a parish in Worcestershire.  To this place we probably owe the south English Barbons, one of whom... was written variously Barbon, Barbone, and Barebones.  A good deal of fun would have been lost to the world if a certain Parliament had been more correctly styled Barbon's Parliament.  Even Barebones' Parliament is inaccurate, it should be Barebone's.  'The Long Parliament in Cromwell's time, called by derision the Rump, was headed by one Barebones, a leather-seller' (Curiosities of Literature).  Here Isaac Disraeli is manifestly in error.  Peck in his Desiderata Curiosa, speaking (1646) of a member of the family, styles him 'Mr. Barborne,' probably the original form, and suggesting Worcestershire as the home of the race.