(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 (Ulster): Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hÍr, meaning ‘long-lasting’. In Ireland this name is found in County Armagh; it has also long been established in Scotland.
Irish: Anglicized form of Ó hAichir ‘descendant of Aichear’, a personal name derived from the epithet aichear ‘fierce’, ‘sharp’. In Ireland this name is more commonly Anglicized as O’Hehir.
English: nickname for a swift runner (possibly a speedy messenger) or a timorous person, from Middle English hare ‘hare’. However, the surname Ayer and its variants was sometimes recorded as Hare.
English: topographic name from an Old English hær ‘rock’, ‘heap of stones’, ‘tumulus’.
French: according to Morlet, an occupational name for a huntsman, from a medieval French call used to urge on the hounds, or, in the form Haré, from the past participle of harer ‘to excite, stir up (hounds in pursuit of a quarry)’.
