(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.
Americanized form of any of the numerous Continental European surnames derived from Latin Cornelius (see Cornelius), for example French Corneille or German Kornel.
Swedish: Latinized form of Horn, meaning ‘horn’; probably a soldier's name.
English: reduced form of Cornwell or of Cornhill, a habitational name from a place in Northumberland named Cornhill, from Old English corn, a metathesized form of cron, cran ‘crane’ + halh ‘nook’, ‘recess’; or from Cornhill in London, a medieval grain exchange, named with Old English corn ‘corn’, ‘grain’ + hyll ‘hill’, or from some other place elsewhere similarly named.
FOREBEARS Ezra Cornell (1807–74), the founder of Cornell University, was born of New England Quaker stock in Westchester Co., NY, a descendant of Thomas Cornell of Saffron Walden, Essex, England, who emigrated sometime before 1642, when he is recorded as being married in Portsmouth, Newport Co., RI.
