(male) One of the many French names of Germanic origin that were introduced into Britain by the Normans; it has since remained in continuous use. It is derived from the nearly synonymous elements hrōd ‘fame’ + berht ‘bright, famous’, and had a native Old English predecessor of similar form (Hreodbeorht), which was supplanted by the Norman name. Two dukes of Normandy in the 11th century bore the name: the father of William the Conqueror (sometimes identified with the legendary Robert the Devil), and his eldest son. It was borne also by three kings of Scotland, notably Robert the Bruce (1274–1329), who freed Scotland from English domination. The altered short form Bob is very common, but Hob and Dob, which were common in the Middle Ages and gave rise to surnames, are extinct. See also Rupert.
Short forms: Bob, Rob.
Pet forms: Bobby, Robbie, Robin.
Cognates: Irish: Roibéard. Scottish Gaelic: Raibeart. German: Robert, Rupprecht. Dutch: Robrecht, Rob(b)ert. Scandinavian: Robert. French: Robert. Spanish, Portuguese, Italian: Roberto. Czech: Robert. Finnish: Roopertti. Hungarian: Róbert. Latvian: Roberts.
English: occupational name for a cook, a seller of cooked meats, or a keeper of an eating house, from Old English cōc (Latin coquus). There has been some confusion with Cocke.
Irish and Scottish: usually identical in origin with the English name, but in some cases a reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Cúg ‘son of Hugo’ (see McCook).
In North America Cook has absorbed examples of cognate and semantically equivalent names from other languages, such as German and Jewish Koch.
Erroneous translation of French Lécuyer (see Lecuyer).
FOREBEARS Francis Cooke (died 1663) and his eldest son John were passengers on the Mayflower in 1621; they were joined two years later by Francis's wife and other children. In the words of William Bradford, when he died he had ‘lived to see his children's children have children’.
