Theobald
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in English: from the Germanic male personal name Theobald, literally 'people-brave'
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/θiəbɑɫd/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Theobald is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 30K(inferred from the name graph)
- AUAustralia≈1 in 50K
- CACanada≈1 in 55K
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)
- Sources
- 305 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 30K (inferred from the name graph)
4,300 people, 2010
Highest-authority source
United Kingdom, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
from the Germanic male personal name Theobald, literally 'people-brave'.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 5 languages in the etymology graph.
How Theobald is read(measured from records)
Theobald is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- English72%
from the Germanic male personal name Theobald, literally 'people-brave'.
as a nameEncyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
from OFr Theobald, Teobaud, Thiebaut, Tibaut, OG Theudobald, Thiotbald, ‘people-bold’, a common continental name; first attested Teobald, Tedbaldus, Tetbald, Tebaldus 1086 DB
as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames
A male given name from the Germanic languages.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- German10%
männl. Vom., latinisierte Form von
as a nameDUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen
- French6.9%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Theobald in French.
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Theobald 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 | — | 4,300 | 1 in 77K | 4.3K | Theobald | 305 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | ≈2,200 est. | ≈1 in 30K | 4.1K | Theobald | 172 |
| TZ Tanzania | — | ≈1,500 est. | ≈1 in 40K | — | Theobald | 14 |
| FR France | — | ≈1,000 est. | ≈1 in 67K | 142 | — | 3 |
| BR Brazil | — | 884 | 1 in 239K | 884 | — | 2 |
| CA Canada | — | ≈690 est. | ≈1 in 55K | — | Theobald | 63 |
| AU Australia | — | ≈510 est. | ≈1 in 50K | — | Theobald | 112 |
| NZ New Zealand | — | ≈140 est. | ≈1 in 36K | — | Theobald | 52 |
| AG Antigua & Barbuda | #750 | — | — | — | Theobald | 1 |
4,300 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010. 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 — Surname Frequency 2010; Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register); IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000). 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)
Theobald is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
g From an Old French name of Germanic (Frankish) origin, derived from peud ‘people’, ‘race’ + bald ‘bold’, ‘brave’. The first element was altered under the influence of Greek theos ‘god’. This name was adopted by the Normans and introduced by them to Britain. Short form: Theo.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
English: from a Latinized form, first found in medieval documents, of a Norman name of Germanic origin, composed of the elements theud people, race + bald bold, brave; the first element has been altered under the influence of Greek theos god. Cognates: Irish Gaelic: Tiobóid. Scottish Gaelic: Tiobaid .
as a word
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)
- Lewis Theobaldb. 1688GBEnglish editor and author (1688–1744)
- William Theobaldb. 1829malacologist (1829–1908)
- Robert Alfred Theobaldb. 1884USUnited States admiral (1884–1957)
- Harold Theobaldb. 1896GBEnglish cricketer (1896-1982)
- Robert Theobaldb. 1929USEconomist and Futurist (1929–1999)
- Eddie Theobaldb. 1940MTMaltese association football player (1940-2010)
- Karl Theobaldb. 1969GBEnglish actor and comedian
- Julian Theobaldb. 1984DEGerman racing driver
- Johannes Theobaldb. 1987DEGerman racing driver
- Jeremy Theobaldb. 2000GBBritish actor
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).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 48 sources across 24 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 4.3K | #7,720 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 4.2K | #7,580 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 4.2K | #7,360 |
| GB United Kingdom | Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register) | 2002 | 4.1K | #1,955 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 884 | #10,360 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | 195 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 189 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 185 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | 180 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1981 | 167 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1991 | 142 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1921 | 136 | — |
Reference works 5
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
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 Theobald mean, and where does it come from?
- from the Germanic male personal name Theobald, literally 'people-brave'. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- What are other forms of the name Theobald?
- In the etymology graph, Baldo is a form of the same name in other languages; Tibby is a recorded short or pet form.
- How do you pronounce Theobald?
- A machine transcription gives /θiəbɑɫd/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Theobald have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 4.3 thousand people named Theobald, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled theobald.
- How common is the name Theobald?
- In the United States, the national register counted 4,300 people named Theobald in 2010, about 1 in 77 thousand residents.
- How common is Theobald compared with other names?
- In Antigua & Barbuda, Theobald is the 750th most common surname of 30,187 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Theobald?
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/theobaldThe 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), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
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, “Theobald” — the 750th most common surname in Antigua & Barbuda. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.