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Roberts

Boy name · 7 babies recorded · 1974–2025

Roberts: 7 babies born in Scotland since 1974, given to boys, peaking at 4 births in 2013.

Roberts is the patronymic form of the given name Robert, derived from the Old German elements *hrod* ("fame") and *beraht* ("bright"), so the name effectively means "bright fame." Perhaps its most famous bearer is the Scottish poet Robert Burns, whose centuries-old legacy still looms large on Burns Night, but for the name itself, a cleaner link is the modernist Scottish poet Robert Garioch, who wrote sharply in both Scots and English. The surname form gained singular first-name status largely in the United States during the Victorian era, where double-barrelled surnames as given names became fashionable. A curious cultural note: in Scotland, "Roberts" as a first name has never broken into the top 100, remaining far rarer than the classic Robert.