(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 and Scottish: nickname for a wild or uncouth person, from Middle English, Old French salvage, sauvage ‘untamed’ (Late Latin salvaticus literally ‘man of the woods’, a derivative of Latin silva ‘wood’, influenced by Latin salvus ‘whole’, i.e. natural).
Irish: generally of English origin (it was taken to County Down in the 12th century), this name has also sometimes been adopted as equivalent of Gaelic Ó Sabháin, the name of a small south Munster sept, which was earlier Anglicized as O’Savin(see Savin).
Americanized form of Ashkenazic Jewish Savich.
FOREBEARS A Jacob Savage, born in Exeter, Devon, England, in 1604, is recorded in Essex, NJ, by the early 1630s. Edward Savage, of Huguenot descent, emigrated from Ireland to Massachusetts in 1696. His grandson and namesake, who was born in Princeton, MA, in 1761 gained fame as an artist for his portrait of George Washington (1789–90).
