(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.
Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Gadhra ‘descendant of Gadhra’ (see O’Gara). See also McGeary.
English: from a personal name derived from Germanic gēr, gār ‘spear’, a short form of any of various compound names with this as a first element (see, for example Garrett).
English: nickname for a wayward or capricious person, from Middle English ge(a)ry ‘fickle’, ‘changeable’, ‘passionate’ (a derivative of gere ‘fit of passion’, apparently a Scandinavian borrowing).
Possibly an altered spelling of German Gehring or Gehrig.
FOREBEARS Most present-day Irish bearers of the name Geary and its variants and derivatives are descended from a single 10thcentury ancestor, a nephew of Eadhra, who founded the family O’Hara in Connacht. The family is now spread more widely.
