Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “Bobby” come from?

Bobby is a diminutive of Robert, which derives from Latin Robertus, a name formed with the Latin diminutive suffix -ia and the Latin adjective-forming suffix -ivus, ultimately tracing to Proto-Indo-European -kos.

Ancestry of “Bobby”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1English-yAdded to nouns and adjectives to form adjectives...
2Middle English-yDesignates an adjective, in many cases formed by...
3Old English-iġ-y, -ic
4Proto-West Germanic-gForms adjectives from nouns and verbs with a...
5Proto-Germanic-gaz-y
6Proto-Indo-European-ḱos-y, -ic
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -ḱos →