Baruch (Hebrew: בָּרוּךְ, Modern: Barūḵ, Tiberian: Bārūḵ, "Blessed", Polish: Berek) is a masculine name among Jews used from Biblical times to the present, which is sometimes used as surname. It is also found, though more rarely, among Christians—particularly among Protestants who use Old Testament names.
Except for its use as a name, this is also related to berakhah or bracha (Hebrew: ברכה; plural ברכות, berakhot), which is a Jewish blessing. See also: Baraka and Barakah.
The root B-R-K meaning "blessing" is also present in other Semitic languages. The most common Arabic form is the passive form Mubarak, but the form Barak (Barack) is also used. In Polish it is Berek.
Benedictus is a Latin name with similar meaning; cf. Baruch Spinoza or Benedictus de Spinoza.
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People with the given name Baruch
Bible
Baruch ben Neriah, aide to the prophet Jeremiah
Baruch, son of Zabbai; one of Nehemiah's helpers in repairing the walls of Jerusalem
Baruch, son of Col-Hozeh; a member of the Tribe of Judah who settled in Jerusalem
Later times
Baruch Agadati (1895–1976), Israeli painter, dancer, and film director
Baruch Ben Haim (1921–2005), assistant chief rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York
Baruch Blumberg (1925–2011), American Nobel Prize-winning physician, developed Hepatitis B vaccine
Baruch Feinberg (1933–2007), Israeli Olympic javelin thrower
Baruch Goldstein (1956–1994), American-Israeli settler physician who murdered 29 Muslim worshipers in 1994
Baruch Hirson (1921-1999), South African Trotskyist activist, political prisoner and academic. Author of Year of Fire, Year of Ash: the Soweto revolt, roots of a revolution.
Baruch Kurzweil (1907–1972), Israeli literary critic
Baruch Levine (born 1977), American Orthodox Jewish singer-composer
Baruch Ostrovsky (1890–1960), first mayor of Ra'anana, Israel
Baruch Shemtov (born 1987), American journalist, television host, fashion designer, and entrepreneur
Baruch Shmailov (born 1994), Israeli Olympic judoka
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), Dutch rationalist philosopher
Baruch Schleisinger Weil (1802–1893) American businessman and politician
Baruch Steinberg (1897–1940), chief Rabbi of the Polish Army, victim of the Katyn massacre
Fictional characters
The Baruch of Baghdad, the king of the Saracens in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival
Baruch, a fictional angel in the His Dark Materials series
The real name of Billy Joe Cobra, of the television show Dude, That's My Ghost