Bert (name)

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Bert is a

.

There is a large number of Germanic names ending in -bert, second in number only to those ending in -wolf (-olf, -ulf). Most of these names are early medieval and only a comparatively small fraction remains in modern use.

The element -berht has the meaning of "

PIE root *bhereg- "white, bright". The female hypocoristic of names containing the same element is Berta
.

Modern English bright itself has the same etymology, but it has suffered metathesis at an early date, already in the Old English period, attested as early as AD 700 in the Lindisfarne Gospels. The unmetathesized form disappears after AD 1000 and Middle English from about 1200 has briht universally.

Names containing berht

There is no evidence of the berht element in Germanic personal names prior to the 6th century. It is mostly unknown in names of

Pardessus' Diplomata s. a. 745 has Berdbert as a rare example of a reduplicated Germanic name. Förstemann counts 369 names with final -bert(a), of which 61 are feminine.[1]

Given names that remain in modern use include:

  1. names with -bert as final element
  2. names with Bert- as first element

Names abbreviated "Bert"

The following names are commonly abbreviated as "Bert":

People called Bert

As a surname

Fictional characters

See also

References

  1. ^ E. Förstemann, Altdeutsches Namenbuch (1856), p. 235–254.