Robert
given name · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Robert is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country, where it is the 5th most common given name. Recorded meaning: from the male personal name Robert, of Germanic origin meaning literally “renown-bright”.
- IEIreland≈1 in 71(inferred from the name graph)
- NZNew Zealand≈1 in 75
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 76
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- #15 (measured from records)
- 6 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 715 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 71 (inferred from the name graph)
2,759,339 people, 2020
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Ireland, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
from the male personal name Robert, of Germanic origin meaning literally “renown-bright”
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 13 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Robert counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #5 | 2,759,339 | 1 in 121 | 2.8M | Robert | 715 |
| GB United Kingdom | #7 | ≈870,000 est. | ≈1 in 76 | 53 | Robert | 468 |
| EG Egypt | #93 | ≈470,000 est. | ≈1 in 222 | — | Robert | 95 |
| CA Canada | #4 | ≈460,000 est. | ≈1 in 83 | 23 | Robert | 382 |
| IT Italy | #12 | ≈440,000 est. | ≈1 in 141 | 348 | Robert | 177 |
| IE Ireland | #5 | ≈73,000 est. | ≈1 in 71 | — | Robert | 209 |
| NZ New Zealand | #5 | ≈66,000 est. | ≈1 in 75 | 11 | Robert | 213 |
| SK Slovakia | #21 | ≈63,000 est. | ≈1 in 86 | #19 | Robert | 158 |
2,759,339 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Robert is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In French, From Germanic hlod ‘glory’ + berht ‘bright, famous’; a common European given name.
as a nameTên Họ Người Việt Nam
In enm, Germanic ‘fame bright’; widely used in Ireland, with several Irish-language forms.
as a nameIrish first names
In German, Germanic name; hrod- 'fame' + beraht 'bright'.
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
In German, from Germanic *hrod- 'fame' + *berht- 'bright'
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
In English, Vars.: Rives; Larive, Delarive. Cogns.: Prov.: Ribe(s). It.: Riva(s). Cat.: Riba(s), Ribes. Riva; Rivani, Rivano. Sp.: Dims.: Fr.:.Rivet, Riveau, Rivelon. It.: Rivetti. Cat.: RibP.
as a nameA dictionary of surnames
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Sir Robert Walpoleb. 1676GBBritish statesman and art collector, 1st Earl of Orford (1676–1745)
- Carlos Roberto Darwinb. 1809GBnot in their usual nameEnglish naturalist and biologist (1809–1882)
- Robert Donatb. 1905GBEnglish actor (1905–1958)
- Robert Mugabeb. 1924ZW2nd President of Zimbabwe from 1987 to 2017
- Robert G. Edwardsb. 1925GBEnglish physiologist and pioneer in reproductive medicine and in-vitro fertilisation
- Richard Ernstb. 1933CHnot in their usual nameSwiss physical chemist and Nobel laureate (1933–2021)
- Robert Lucasb. 1937USAmerican economist (1937–2023)
- Clark Greggb. 1962USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor, screenwriter and director (born 1962)
- Robert Piresb. 1973FRFrench footballer (born 1973)
- David Beckhamb. 1975GBnot in their usual nameEnglish footballer (born 1975)
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 179 sources across 90 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 2.8M | #5 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 3.8K | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 2.7K | #5 |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 2024 | 148 | — |
| CA Canada | Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender | 2024 | 23 | #209 |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 1991 | 6 | — |
Reference works 10
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Hoffman, Polish Surnames: Origins and Meanings (2nd ed., 2012)
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Robert mean, and where does it come from?
- from the male personal name Robert, of Germanic origin meaning literally “renown-bright” Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- Is Robert a male or female name?
- Robert is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What are other forms of the name Robert?
- In the etymology graph, Roberto, Robin and Bobby are forms of the same name in other languages; Bob, Rob and Robby are recorded short or pet forms.
- In which country does Robert have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 2.8 million people named Robert, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled robert.
- How common is the name Robert?
- In the United States, the national register counted 2,759,339 people named Robert in 2020, about 1 in 121 residents.
- How common is Robert compared with other names?
- In the United States, Robert is the 5th most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Robert?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/robertThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), and bulk access is licensed separately.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Robert” — the 5th most common given name in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.