Robert
Meaning
bright fame
Goes by Bert, Bob, Bobbie, Bobby, and 3 more
Famously borne by Robert Galbraith, the crime writer J.K. Rowling invented, named partly for her hero Robert F. Kennedy.
The story
Robert is Germanic, built from hrod and beraht, bright fame, and the Normans carried it into England in 1066, where it never left. It gave Scotland two of its greatest figures, Robert the Bruce and Robert Burns, and it gave English a whole wardrobe of nicknames: Rob, Bob, Robin, Bert, Bobby. In America it was a giant, one of the top names of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, when it could seem that every block had a Bob or two, and the mid-century plateau on the chart below shows that era plainly. It has descended slowly and gracefully since, settling into the steady, modest place where the old kings of the charts tend to retire. Bright fame is a fitting meaning for a name that spent half a century as famous as a name can be.
Robert around the world
One shared root links 8 names across 3 languages.
Shared root: from Germanic Hrodebert, hrod "fame" + beraht "bright"
The constellation
More branches
In written records since at least 1086: Domesday Book, 1086 survey.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Robert peaked in the 1940s.
Popularity in Brazil
43,282 people · the #625 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 4,695 · median age 21
Among people named Robert living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2000s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 1,567 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Robert
People given the name Robert in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1950 to 1989. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Robert deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Robert truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Robert fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Nicknames for Robert · Pen names and the names writers chose
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