subject: Name Calling: Robert Genealogy [print this page] Name Calling: Robert Genealogy Name Calling: Robert Genealogy
If we had a major league contest for the Number One, favorite boy's name, ever, Robert would most likely win (via usage in registered birth records, US/Europe). Further back, only less reliable name references, in archaic historical documents. It's quite possible, for example, there's an obscure Chinese name or soubriquet, uttered with a beautiful phonetic intonation but used by more citizens than India's population? But there probably isn't!In the US, usage of Robert names has declined in recent years - to 47th in 2006. But Robert stuck in top five for decades. Usage peaked at 5.688% in 1931. It's currently number one in Scotland (2009) and in the top 50 for England, France, Scandinavia and Germany.Originally Germanic, the Norman form: hrodberht eventually replaced older variants. The meaning is something like 'bright star' or 'glittering fame'. Variant forms of Robert - short or nicknames, and cognates - are abundant. Usage stretches to the furthest corners of Europe: Roberte & Roberts in Latvia, Robertas in Russia, Rupert: England and Germany, Roberto: Italy and Spain; Bobby & Rob, Robin & Robbie. Surname kin-forms: Roberts & Robertson. Ever popular, Bob - perhaps because it's spelled the same back and forwards!Notable historic Roberts include various Scottish, and French Kings, Norman Dukes, and a whole congregation of Roman Catholic Saints. There was a German Prince Rupert, nephew to England's King Charles I. During the English Civil War, Rupert's cavalier charge at Edgehill (1642) was a risky tactical maneuver that almost saved the day (effectively a draw). Charles smelt victory and promoted Rupert; but his tactics proved disastrous at Marston Moor (1644) and Naseby (1645) securing a resounding defeat - for a king who lost his head! Another, US super-trooper, General Robert E. Lee, turned his bluecoat for grey in the Civil War. At the opposite end of the pitch, President Abe Lincoln named his son, Robert.New York's Robert Mapplethorpe is a contemporary, internationally renowned and controversial US artist/photographer. His starkly 'real', black & white, posed photographs of mixed-race men involved in extreme SM sex, deliberately blur the line between art and pornography; to challenge the viewer's expectations.Robert Mitchum is among the greatest Hollywood screen idols. From the 1940s, he was a new Bogart-type, playing cynical, sexy and rebellious, hard-boiled tragi-heroes; in classic Film Noirs, like Build My Gallows High (aka Out of the Past), Night of the Hunter, and Cape Fear (original).Robert Hughes, is a prestigious art critic and writer, who recently won much popularity in the US and UK, for his groundbreaking television series exploring the history and development of modern art - the Shock of the New.Robert Kennedy, younger brother of assassinated president, was a popular and radical Democrat, who won the Presidential nomination in 1968 to challenge Nixon. But in one of America's most tragic losses, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated."You talkin' to me?" Robert De Niro, master of method, unsurpassed American actor - particularly for his long movie partnership with director Martin Scorsese, e.g. Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Mean Streets. "Someday a real rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets!"Robin Hood robbed the rich to give to the poor... and other miracles.
