Robert
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Robert
King Robert I of Scotland, national hero of Scotland
PronunciationEnglish: /ˈrɒbərt/French:[ʁɔbɛʁ]German:[ˈʁoːbɛʁt]Czech:[ˈrobɛrt]Slovak:[ˈrɔ(ː)bert]Serbo-Croatian:[rǒbert]Armenian:[rɔbɛɾt]
GenderMale
Origin
LanguagesIndo-EuropeanGermanic
Meaning"fame-bright", "glory-bright", "shining with glory", "godlike-bright"
Region of originGermanic countries (England, Scotland, Germany, Netherlands, France, Iceland, Scandinavian region (Denmark, Sweden, Norway))
Other names
DerivedHrōþiberhtaz
Related namesVariantsRupert, RuprechtBoris RobrechtRodbertRaivisRaivoRobertsRobinRobinetteRoberta (female form)Nicknames Rob (short form),Robb (short form),Roby (nickname),Robbie (nickname),Robby (nickname),Ro (nickname),Roe (nickname),Bob (nickname),Bobby (nickname),Bert (nickname),Bertie (nickname)
See alsoRoger, Roland, Rudolph, Roderick, Roman, Rose, Herbert, Waldemar, Vladimir

The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic*Hrōþi- "fame" and *berhta- "bright" (Hrōþiberhtaz).[1] Compare Old DutchRobrecht and Old High GermanHrodebert (a compound of Hruod (Old Norse: Hróðr) "fame, glory, honour, praise, renown, godlike" and berht "bright, light, shining"). It is the second most frequently used given name of ancient Germanic origin.[2][3] It is also in use as a surname. Another commonly used form of the name is Rupert.

After becoming widely used in Continental Europe, the name entered England in its Old French form Robert, where an Old English cognate form (Hrēodbēorht, Hrodberht, Hrēodbēorð, Hrœdbœrð, Hrœdberð, Hrōðberχtŕ) had existed before the Norman Conquest. The feminine version is Roberta. The Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish form is Roberto.

Robert is also a common name in many Germanic languages, including English, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Scots, Danish, and Icelandic. It can be used as a French, Polish, Irish, Finnish, Romanian, and Estonian name as well.

Variations

Bert, Bertie, Berto, Bertus (also short for Albert or Herbert)

  • Feminine forms:
  • Bobbi, Bobbie
  • Robbi, Robbie
  • Roberta
  • Robertina, Robertine
  • Robina
  • Robyn, Robynne
  • Ruprette, Rupretta (archaic French)

Popularity and trivia

Robert I of Normandy a.k.a. Robert the Magnificent

The name Robert was a royal name in France, Germany, Scotland and England during the medieval period, and was the name of several kings, dukes, and other rulers and noblemen. It was one of the most popular male names in medieval Europe, likely due to its frequent usage amongst royalty and nobility. To this day, Robert remains one of the most frequently given male names.

Robert was in the top 10 most given boys' names in the United States for 47 years, from 1925 to 1972.[4] While some names become less frequently used due to negative associations, Robert is still widely used despite its connection to many negatively evaluated historical figures.

It is the fourth most common name in the United States, according to 100 years of Social Security Administration naming and mortality data.[5] There are 3,085,000 males and 13,571 females[6] with this name, for a total of 3,098,571 people with this name.

In Italy during the Second World War, the form Roberto briefly acquired a new meaning derived from, and referring to the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis.[7]

The name's second component, *berhta-, is the original root for the modern English word "bright".[8]

People named Robert

Royalty

Kings of Scotland
Kings of France
King of Naples
King of Germany
King of Hungary and Croatia
King of Bulgaria
Dukes of Normandy
  • Robert I, Duke of Normandy (1000–1035), also known as Robert the Magnificent or Robert the Devil; father of William the Conqueror
  • Robert Curthose (c.1051–1134, son of William the Conqueror, claimant to throne of Kingdom of England.
Duke of Chartres
Duke of Parma
Count of Flanders
Crown Prince of Bavaria
Latin Emperor
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Sicily and Prince of Benevento
Princes of Capua
Counts and Lords of Artois
Franconian Babenbergers/Robertian Capetians
Others

Medieval figures

Folk heroes

  • Robert Huntington, known as Robin Hood, legendary heroic outlaw and nobleman originally depicted in English folklore, highly skilled archer and swordsman, sometimes regarded as a national hero of England
  • Robert Roy Macgregor (1671–1734), Scottish outlaw and national hero

Nobility

Religious figures and saints

Presidents and prime ministers

British Prime Ministers
Australian Prime Ministers
Presidents and Prime Ministers from Asia / Oceania
Presidents and Prime Ministers from Europe
Presidents and Prime Ministers from the Americas

Dictators

Secretaries of Defense

Wartime figures and military leaders

American military
British / Scottish military
Australian military
German / Austrian military
Irish military
  • Robert Emmet (1778–1803), Irish Republican, orator and rebel leader
Cuban military
Italian military
French military
  • Robert Nivelle (1856–1924), French artillery officer who led the French forces during World War I as commander in-chief of French army
Russian military

Other military

Nazis

Nuclear physicists

Explorers

  • Robert Ballard (born 1942), retired United States Navy officer and a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island
  • Robert Bartlett (1875–1946), Newfoundland-born American Arctic explorer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, accompanied United States Navy Commander Robert Peary on his attempts to reach the North Pole
  • Robert O'Hara Burke (1821–1861), Irish soldier and police officer who explored Australia, leader of the first expedition to cross Australia from south to north
  • Robert Dudley (1574–1649), English explorer and cartographer
  • Sir Robert McClure (1807–1873), Irish explorer of the Arctic who in 1854 traversed the Northwest Passage by boat and sledge and was the first to circumnavigate the Americas
  • Robert Peary (1856–1920), American explorer and United States Navy officer who made several expeditions to the Arctic, reached the geographic North Pole with his expedition on April 6, 1909, believed to be the first man to have ever reached the North Pole
  • Robert Falcon Scott (1868–1912), British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions
  • Robert Swan (born 1956), the first person to walk to both Poles

Intelligence officers

Movie industry

Musicians

Record producers and DJs
  • Robert Abisi (born 1989), member of the electronic music and DJ duo Lost Kings
  • Robert Babicz (born 1973), Polish born German electronic music producer, DJ and mastering engineer
  • Robert van de Corput (born 1988), real name of the award-winning Dutch DJ, twice worlds No.1 DJ, composer and music producer Hardwell
  • Robert DeLong (born 1986), American electronic musician, record producer, composer and performer
  • Robert Hughes (fl. 2010s–2020s), real name of the Canadian trap music DJ and record producer known as Vincent and Tiger Drool
  • Robert Miles (1969–2017), Swiss-born Italian DJ and record producer, inventor of the dream trance genre;
  • Robert Toomey (1955–2022), real name of the American DJ, keyboardist and mixologist Brother Cleve
  • Robert "Bob" Rifo (born 1977), founder of the Italian electronic music project The Bloody Beetroots
  • Robert "Rob" Swire (born 1982), Australian electronic music producer and DJ
Singers
  • Roberto Carlos (born 1941), Brazilian singer-songwriter, also known as King of Latin Music or simply The King
  • Robert "Bob" Chilcott (born 1955), British choral composer, conductor, and singer
  • Robert "Bob" Crosby (1913–1993), American jazz singer and bandleader, best known for his group the Bob-Cats
  • Robert "Bobby" Darin (1936–1973), American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, impressionist, and actor
  • Robert Francis (born 1987), American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter
  • Robert Kelly (born 1967), American singer, songwriter, record producer, and former semi-professional basketball player who helped redefine R&B and hip hop, earning the nicknames "King of R&B" and "King of Pop-Soul"
  • Robert Johnson (1911–1938), American blues singer-songwriter and musician
  • Robert "Bob" Marley (1945–1981), Jamaican singer-songwriter
  • Robert "Bobby" McFerrin (born 1950), American musician, singer, conductor, arranger and record producer
  • Roberto "Bert" Nievera (1936–2018), Filipino-American singer
  • Robert Palmer (1949–2003), English composer, songwriter, singer and record producer;
  • Robert Ritchie (born 1971), American singer-songwriter, rapper, musician, record producer, and actor known as Kid Rock
  • Robert "Bob" Seger (born 1945), American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • Robert Tepper (born 1950), American songwriter, composer, recording artist and singer
  • Robert "Bobby" Vee (1943–2016), American singer, songwriter, musician and teen idol
  • Robert "Robbie" Williams (born 1974), British singer and songwriter
  • Robert "Rob" Zombie (born 1965), American musician, singer, songwriter, programmer, voice actor, filmmaker and founding member of the heavy metal band White Zombie
  • Robert Allen Zimmerman (born 1941), real name of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan
Band members
Rappers
  • Robert Rihmeek Williams (born 1987), American rapper, singer and activist known as Meek Mill
  • Robert van Winkle (born 1967), real name of American rapper, actor, and television host Vanilla Ice
  • Robert Ginyard (born 1967), real name of American hip hop artist Rob Base
Composers
  • Robert Kajanus (1856–1933), Finnish composer, conductor and teacher, founder of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
  • Robert Schumann (1810–1856), German composer and music critic, one of the greatest composers of romantic era
  • Robert Volkmann (1815–1883), German composer
  • Robert "Bob" Wiseman (born 1962), Canadian film composer, songwriter and music teacher
Instrumentalists

Scientists

  • Robert Arno, engineer
  • Robert Balch (born 1945), American sociologist
  • Robert Anthony Bonomo, American physician and academic
  • Robert Boyle (1627–1691), British natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor, first modern chemist, and one of the founders of modern chemistry
  • Robert Bunsen (1811–1899), German chemist who discovered caesium in 1860 and rubidium in 1861, pioneer of photochemistry and organoarsenic chemistry and developer of the Bunsen burner
  • Robert F. Christy (1916–2012), Canadian-American theoretical physicist, astrophysicist, one of the last surviving people to have worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II
  • Robert Dorsey Coale (1857–1915), American chemist and colonel, professor and dean at the University of Maryland, Baltimore
  • Robert Colebunders (born 1949/1950), Belgian clinician and researcher
  • Robert Darwin (1766–1848), English medical doctor, father of the naturalist Charles Robert Darwin
  • Robert Esnault-Pelterie (1881–1957), French aircraft designer and spaceflight theorist, developer of ballistic missiles, father of modern rocketry
  • Robert Fulton (1765–1815), American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing a commercially successful steamboat known as North River Steamboat
  • Robert H. Goddard (1882–1945), American engineer, professor, physicist, and inventor, credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, father of modern rocketry
  • Robert C. Green (fl. 1970s–2020s), American medical geneticist, physician, and public health researcher
  • Robert J. Van de Graaff (1901–1967), engineer and physicist, inventor of high-voltage Van de Graaff generators
  • Robert Gardiner Hill (1811–1878), British surgeon specialising in the treatment of lunacy
  • Robert Hooke (1635–1703), English natural philosopher, architect and polymath, best known for discovering and naming the cell in 1665
  • Sir Robert Jones, 1st Baronet (1857–1933), Welsh orthopaedic surgeon who helped to establish the modern specialty of orthopaedic surgery in Britain, early proponent of the use of radiography in orthopaedics, and described the eponymous Jones fracture
  • Robert Koch (1843–1910), German physician and microbiologist, founder of modern bacteriology, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1905 for his research on Tuberculosis
  • Robert Liston (1794–1847), Scottish surgeon
  • Robert F. Maronde (1920–2008), professor at University of Southern California Medical School
  • Robert Andrews Millikan (1868–1953), American experimental physicist honored with the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1923 for the measurement of the elementary electric charge and for his work on the photoelectric effect
  • Robert Mitchell (geologist) (fl. 1980s–2020s), Distinguished Professor at Western Washington University
  • Sir Robert Robinson (1886–1975), Nobel Prize and Medal of Freedom winning British organic chemist
  • Robert Allen Rolfe (1855–1921), English botanist specialising in the study of orchids
  • Robert Shapiro (1935–2011), professor emeritus of chemistry at New York University, best known for his work on the origin of life
  • Robert I. Tilling (born 1935), Geologist known for research in Hawaii
  • Robert Winston, Baron Winston (born 1940), British professor, medical doctor, scientist
  • Robert Crooke Wood (1799–1869), American physicist and neurologist during the American Civil War
  • Robert W. Wood (1868–1955), American physicist and inventor who is often cited as being a pivotal contributor to the field of optics and a pioneer of infrared photography and ultraviolet photography
  • Robert J. White (1926–2010), American neurosurgeon best known for his head transplants on living monkeys

Prison officials

Criminals

Judges

Political figures

Secretaries of War

Secretaries of State

Governors

Mayors

Founding Fathers of United States

Literary figures

Businessmen

Administrators of NASA

Astronauts

Sportsmen

Others

Objects and artifacts

Fictional characters

Folklore

  • Puck, also Robert Goodfellow or Robin Goodfellow, a domestic and nature sprite, demon, or fairy in mythology
  • Knecht Ruprecht, or Knight Robert, a legendary Christmas character from German folklore

See also

References

  1. ^ ab"Robrecht". Historische woordenboeken: Nederlands en Fries (in Dutch). Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal.
  2. ^ abReaney & Wilson, 1997. Dictionary of English Surnames. Oxford University Press.
  3. ^Withycombe, E., 1973 ed. Oxford Dictionary of English Christian names. Oxford University Press.
  4. ^Frank Nuessel (1992). The Study of Names: A Guide to the Principles and Topics. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 10. Archived from the original on October 3, 2013.
  5. ^"Name Robert: Wolfram Alpha". January 1, 2021. Archived from the original on February 12, 2023. Retrieved September 8, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  6. ^"Name Robert (Females): Wolfram Alpha". January 1, 2021. Archived from the original on February 12, 2023. Retrieved September 8, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  7. ^RoBerTo Checked, Time Magazine, October 19, 1942
  8. ^"BRIGHT | Meaning & Definition for UK English". Lexico.com. Archived from the original on July 17, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  9. ^"Beato Galeotto Roberto Malatesta". Santiebeati.it. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
  10. ^"Biographie". Robert Naoussi (in French). Retrieved November 3, 2023.
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