Robert Hook

(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.

English (southern): from Middle English hoke, Old English hōc ‘hook’, in any of a variety of senses: as a metonymic occupational name for someone who made and sold hooks as agricultural implements or employed them in his work; as a topographic name for someone who lived by a ‘hook’ of land, i.e. the bend of a river or the spur of a hill; or as a nickname (in part a survival of an Old English byname) for someone with a hunched back or a hooked nose. A similar ambiguity of interpretation presents itself in the case of Crook. In some cases the surname may be habitational from any of various places named Hook(e), from this word, as for example in Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, Surrey, Wiltshire, and Worcestershire.