Bobo
A name that may descend from very old Germanic pet forms built on childlike sounds like “bob-” or “bub-,” later used as a surname.
The #3,828 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 33,363 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The historical sources connect Bobo with a cluster of early Germanic personal names such as Bobo, Bobbo, Poppo, and Bubo. These names are usually explained as nursery-like forms, probably related to words meaning “boy” or “child,” rather than as shortenings of a longer formal name. In that sense, Bobo likely began as a personal name or nickname and only later became hereditary as a surname.
History
The excerpts show Bobo discussed alongside very early Germanic and Anglo-Saxon names, suggesting deep medieval roots. Similar forms appear in charter and place-name records, and the name seems to have spread in various spellings across Germanic-speaking areas. As a surname, it is likely to have arisen independently in more than one place from an ancestor bearing the personal name Bobo.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century name scholars often grouped Bobo with a whole family of old pet names ending in -o, alongside forms like Poppo and Bubo.
From the historical record
“Bob, Bop. Old German Bobo, Bobbo, Boppo, Poppo, Bubo, Pupo, Boj. Poupo, Poapo, Popi, Bovo, Bova, Boffo, 6th cent. Anglo- Saxon Bubba. Boffa, Lib. Vit. English Bovey, Bovay, BoFF, Boffey, Bubb, Buba, Pope, Poppy, Povey, Pupp. Mod. German Bobbe, Bopp, Bube, Popp, Puppe. French”
— The Teutonic Name-System applied to the family names of France, England and Germany