Robert

given name · English · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Robert is a given name, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country, where it is the 5th most common given name. It appears chiefly in English and Spanish, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: from the male personal name Robert, of Germanic origin meaning literally “renown-bright”.

rarermore common
  • GBUnited Kingdom1 in 84◐
  • NZNew Zealand1 in 92
  • CACanada1 in 96

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

≈4.2M ●

across 16 countries

#24 ●

of 16M given names

6 ●

recorded for this name

Sources
645 ●

41M records

Official registry-verified

1 in 121 ◐

United States

Spellings & scripts●

RobertLatin · English●41M records
РобертCyrillic · Russian●316K records
רוברטHebrew · Hebrew●37K records
ᲠობერტGeorgian · Georgian●5.5K records
로버트Hangul · Korean●7 records
ՌոբերտArmenian · Armenian●0 records

One other spelling is counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Роберт in RU Russia, UA Ukraine, KZ Kazakhstan, רוברט in FR France, IL Israel, רוברטו in BR Brazil and Roberto in EC Ecuador.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

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●

Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.

Where Robert is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
US United States#52,756,60433M rec.1 in 1212.8MRobert645
GB United Kingdom#72,470,3092.1M rec.—53Robert366
AU Australia#81,046,052810K rec.—3Robert340
CA Canada#4864,914818K rec.—23Robert295
DE Germany#35481,048435K rec.—1Robert317
FR France—419,255△1.5K rec.1 in 162419Kרוברט12
RU Russia#140409,792237K rec.—#84Роберт164
BR Brazil—373,697△1K rec.1 in 567437Kרוברטו11
PL Poland#44256,984△108K rec.1 in 149258KRobert239
IT Italy#17244,899245K rec.—348Robert173
PH Philippines#51235,687217K rec.——Robert175
ES Spain—96,80985K rec.1 in 51797KRobert191

Roughly 2.8M people in United States bear this name (about 1 in 121). Estimates project the name's share of our records onto national population, so each is only as good as the record base beside it — the Basis column gives that base; rows marked △ rest on fewer records than the estimate itself and are order-of-magnitude at best.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages●

  • English41M72%
  • Spanish2.9M5%
  • French2.2M4%
  • Polish1.5M3%
  • 1.3M2%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
English40,562,85772%
Spanish2,943,2395%
French2,243,1534%
Polish1,481,8083%
1,302,1372%

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Robert is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish given name4.4M records spelled Robert22 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Cuba, Brazil, Venezuela

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

    Also written Röbërt, Róbert, Rober'T, R'Obert, Rôbêrt

  • French given name2.8M records spelled Robert7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Canada, Belgium

    Also written Róbert, Robért, Robèrt, Ŕobert

  • a separate given name1.4M records spelled Robert10 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, India, Canada

    Also written Róbert, Robèrt, Robért, Ṛobert, Roberṭ

  • Swahili given name361K records spelled Robert5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Kenya, United Kingdom, South Africa

    Languages: Swahili, Southern Sotho, Kinyarwanda

    Also written Róbert

  • Hindi given name234K records spelled Robert27 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, India, Canada

    Languages: Hindi, Sinhala, Urdu

    Also written Robat, Rabart, RobArt, রবার্ট, Róbert

143 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

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.

Over time●

025K50K75K100K19001950200092K · 1947

Show as table
Robert in SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present), United States, 1880–2025
Yearrecords
18802,415
18812,140
18822,500
18832,334
18842,468
18852,322
18862,443
18872,125
18882,814
18892,513
18902,541
18912,240
18922,710
18932,563
18942,497
18952,635
18962,719
18972,701
18982,932
18992,609
19003,821
19012,543
19023,180
19033,044
19043,414
19053,410
19063,635
19074,020
19084,219
19094,563
19105,609
19116,526
191212,836
191315,684
191421,188
191528,737
191631,741
191735,220
191840,619
191941,025
192048,679
192152,779
192253,796
192356,111
192460,802
192560,895
192661,130
192761,674
192860,701
192959,807
193062,153
193160,519
193259,268
193354,221
193455,843
193556,527
193658,500
193761,842
193862,271
193959,666
194061,198
194164,247
194271,845
194374,892
194470,855
194569,947
194684,136
194791,655
194885,478
194983,873
195083,553
195186,353
195286,588
195386,243
195486,331
195583,758
195683,924
195781,765
195877,338
195974,542
196072,357
196172,977
196270,199
196370,007
196469,980
196563,106
196659,317
196756,369
196858,174
196958,300
197057,177
197150,634
197243,013
197338,698
197437,005
197535,306
197633,789
197734,214
197833,374
197934,015
198034,266
198134,395
198234,409
198332,745
198431,768
198532,094
198631,350
198730,237
198830,319
198930,072
199028,886
199126,839
199224,094
199322,447
199420,560
199518,586
199617,676
199716,304
199815,527
199914,540
200013,739
200112,665
200212,031
200311,399
200410,684
200510,166
20069,911
20079,388
20088,841
20097,842
20107,569
20116,984
20126,963
20136,721
20146,660
20156,137
20166,010
20175,566
20185,191
20194,853
20204,402
20214,436
20224,082
20233,827
20243,806
20253,772

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

16001700180019002000Sir Robert Walpole, b. 1676Carlos Roberto Darwin, b. 1809Robert Donat, b. 1905Robert Mugabe, b. 1924Robert G. Edwards, b. 1925Richard Ernst, b. 1933Robert Lucas, b. 1937Clark Gregg, b. 1962Robert Pires, b. 1973David Beckham, b. 1975
  • 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●

Attested in 169 sources across 89 countries.

Official registers attesting Robert
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20202.8M#5
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024)2024419K#1,109
PL Polanddane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names)—258K#21
PL Polanddane.gov.pl — PESEL given names (first + second name position, 2026-01-20)2026257K#21
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—56K#66
CZ CzechiaMVČR — living population register 2017—44K#98
BR BrazilIBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror)202243K—
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)—43K#625
BR BrazilIBGE — Nomes (census name API)—39K#919
NO NorwaySSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population)—27K#157
SE SwedenSCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023)202027K—
CZ Czechianaše jména — 2016 MVČR snapshot—22K#109

Reference works 7

  • 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)
  • jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 2,489 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Robert?
We estimate roughly 4.2 million people bear Robert (counting its spellings and scripts) across 16 countries in our records.
In which country does Robert have the most bearers?
We estimate about 2.8 million people bear Robert in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled robert.
How common is Robert compared with other names?
In the United States, Robert is the 5th most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.
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 does the name Robert mean?
Recorded meaning: from the male personal name Robert, of Germanic origin meaning literally “renown-bright”
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/robert

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.

About this data

● measured from records◐ inferred from the name graph○ machine-generated

Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.

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 2026-09-12.

See how Robert parses inside a full name →