Robert
 King Robert I of Scotland, national hero of Scotland, arguably the best-known Robert in history | |
| Pronunciation | English: /ˈrɒbərt/ French: [ʁɔbɛʁ] German: [ˈʁoːbɛʁt] Czech: [ˈrobɛrt] Slovak: [ˈrɔ(ː)bert] Serbo-Croatian: [rǒbert] |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
| Name day | September 17 |
| Origin | |
| Word/name | Germanic |
| Meaning | "fame-bright", "glory-bright", "shining with glory" |
| Region of origin | Germanic countries (England, Scotland, Germany, Netherlands, France, Iceland, Scandinavian region (Denmark, Sweden, Norway)) |
| Other names | |
| Derived | Hrōþiberhtaz |
| Related names | Nicknames Rob (short form), Robb (short form), Roby (nickname), Robbie (nickname), Robby (nickname), Ro (nickname), Roe (nickname), Bob (nickname), Bobby (nickname) Variants Rupert, Ruprecht Boris Robrecht Rodbert Raivo Roberts Robin |
| See also | Roger, Roland, Rudolph, Roderick, Roman, Rose, Herbert, Waldemar, Vladimir |
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic *Hrōþi- "fame" and *berhta- "bright" (Hrōþiberhtaz).[1] Compare Old Dutch Robrecht and Old High German Hrodebert (a compound of Hruod (Old Norse: Hróðr) "fame, glory, honour, praise, renown" and berht "bright, light, shining"). It is the second most frequently used given name of ancient Germanic origin.[2][3] It is also in use as a surname. Another commonly used form of the name is Rupert.
After becoming widely used in Continental Europe it entered England in its Old French form Robert, where an Old English cognate form (Hrēodbēorht, Hrodberht, Hrēodbēorð, Hrœdbœrð, Hrœdberð, Hrōðberχtŕ) had existed before the Norman Conquest. The feminine version is Roberta. The Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish form is Roberto.
Robert is also a common name in many Germanic languages, including English, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Scots, Danish, and Icelandic. It can be used as a French, Polish, Irish, Finnish, Romanian, and Estonian name as well.
Variations
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Bert, Bertie, Berto, Bertus (also short for Albert or Herbert)
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Robin (Medieval diminutive in English, Dutch, Swedish)
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Popularity and trivia
Robert I of Normandy a.k.a. Robert the Magnificent
The name Robert was a royal name in France, Germany, Scotland and England during the medieval period, and was the name of several kings, dukes, and other rulers and noblemen. It was one of the most popular male names in medieval Europe, likely due to its frequent usage amongst royalty and nobility. To this day, Robert remains one of the most frequently given male names.
Robert was in the top 10 most given boys' names in the United States for 47 years, from 1925 to 1972.[4] While some names become less frequently used due to negative associations, Robert is still widely used despite its connection to many negatively evaluated historical figures.
In Italy during the Second World War, the form of the name, Roberto, briefly acquired a new meaning derived from, and referring to the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis.[5]
The name's second component, *berhta-, is the original root for the modern English word "bright".[6] The name Robert almost exactly shares its meaning with the name Waldemar / Vladimir.
People with the given name
Royalty
- Kings of Scotland
- Robert I of Scotland (1274–1329) ("Robert the Bruce"), king and national hero of Scotland, legendary for his victory at the Battle of Bannockburn, one of the most prominent and skilled warriors of his time who freed Scotland from the English rule during the Wars of Scottish Independence
- Robert II of Scotland (Robert Stewart) (1316–1390), one of the principal commanders at the Battle of Halidon Hill
- Robert III of Scotland (c. 1337/40–1406)
- Kings of France
- Robert I of France (c.866–923)
- Robert II of France (972–1031)
- King of Naples
- Robert of Naples (1276–1343)
- King of Germany
- Robert of Germany (Rupertus, Rex Romanorum) (1352–1410)
- King of Hungary and Croatia
- Charles I Robert (1288–1342)
- King of Bulgaria
- Robert of Bulgaria, Tsar of the Kingdom of Bulgaria (1894–1943)
- Dukes of Normandy
- Robert I, Duke of Normandy (1000–1035), also known as Robert the Magnificent or Robert the Devil; father of William the Conqueror
- Robert Curthose (c.1051–1134, son of William the Conqueror, claimant to throne of Kingdom of England, one of the principal commanders of the First Crusade and its battles Siege of Antioch, Battle of Ascalon, Battle of Dorylaeum (1097), Siege of Jerusalem (1099), Siege of Nicaea and Battle of Tinchebray
- Duke of Chartres
- Prince Robert, Duke of Chartres, Crown Prince of France (1840–1910)
- Duke of Parma
- Robert I, Duke of Parma (1848–1907)
- Count of Flanders
- Robert I, Count of Flanders (c.1035–1093)
- Robert II, Count of Flanders (c.1065–1111), one of the principal commanders of the First Crusade and its battles Siege of Antioch, Battle of Ascalon, Siege of Jerusalem (1099), Siege of Ma'arra and Siege of Nicaea
- Crown Prince of Bavaria
- Robert I, crown prince of Bavaria (1869–1955), also known as Prince Rupprecht, last heir apparent to the Bavarian throne, one of the most prominent military commanders of World War I, claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland
- Latin Emperor and Emperor of Constantinople
- Robert I, Latin Emperor (d. 1228), Emperor of the Latin Empire and Constantinopole
- Duke of Sicily and Prince of Benevento
- Robert Guiscard (c. 1015–1085), Norman nobleman, adventurer and explorer, leader of the conquest of southern Italy and Sicily
Medieval figures
- Robert III of Artois (1287–1342), Lord of Conches-en-Ouche, of Domfront, and of Mehun-sur-Yèvre, Earl of Richmond, one of the principal commanders of Battle of Saint-Omer and Hundred Years' War (1337–1360)
- Robert of Bellême, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury, Anglo-Norman nobleman, and one of the most prominent figures in the competition for the succession to England and Normandy, member of the House of Bellême, one of the principal commanders of Battle of Tinchebray
- Sir Robert Bemborough, medieval knight who led the Montfortist faction during the Combat of the Thirty
- Robert de Craon (died 1147), the second Grand Master of the Knights Templar from June 1136 until his death, one of the principal commanders of the Second Crusade
- Robert de Juilly (died 1377), Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller from 1374 to his death
- Robert IV of Sablé (1150–1193), eleventh Grand Master of the Knights Templar from 1191 to 1192 and Lord of Cyprus from 1191 to 1192, one of the principal commanders of the Third Crusade and Battle of Arsuf
Folk heroes
- Robert Huntington, known as Robin Hood, legendary heroic outlaw and nobleman originally depicted in English folklore, highly skilled archer and swordsman, sometimes regarded as a national hero of England
- Robert Roy Macgregor (1671–1734), Scottish outlaw and national hero
Nobility
- Robert Benson, 1st Baron Bingley
- Robert Bertie, 1st Earl of Lindsey
- Robert Bruce, 1st Earl of Ailesbury
- Robert Carey, 1st Earl of Monmouth
- Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset
- Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, British lawyer, politician and diplomat, one of the architects of the League of Nations;
- Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury
- Sir Robert Dashwood, 1st Baronet, English politician
- Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, English nobleman and military commander, one of the principal commanders of English Armada, Capture of Cadiz, Islands Voyage, Essex Campaign in Ireland and Irish Nine Years' War
- Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, British statesman and military commander, governor-general of British Empire, one of the principal commanders of Dutch Revolt, Eighty Years' War, Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) and Battle of Zutphen
- Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, British nobleman and military leader, Roundhead and one of the principal commanders of English Civil War
- Robert Finlay, 1st Viscount Finlay, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
- Sir Robert Gordon, 1st Baronet, Scottish politician and courtier
- Robert Greville, 2nd Baron Brooke, English Baron, military commander and Roundhead general
- Robert Harley, British statesman and Master of the Mint
- Robert Henley, 1st Earl of Northington, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
- Robert Herbert, 12th Earl of Pembroke
- Sir Robert Inglis, 2nd Baronet, English Conservative politician;
- Robert Kerr, 1st Earl of Ancram
- Robert Kerr, 1st Marquess of Lothian
- Robert III de La Marck, Seigneur of Fleuranges, Marshal of France
- Robert Maxwell, 1st Earl of Nithsdale, Scottish nobleman and military commander, one of the principal commanders of Thirty Years' War
- Robert Maxwell, 5th Lord Maxwell, Scottish soldier and nobleman, member of the Council of Regency of the Kingdom of Scotland, Regent of the Isle of Arran, patriarch of the House of Maxwell/Clan Maxwell, one of the principal commanders of Battle of Solway Moss and Battle of Melrose
- Robert Paston, 1st Earl of Yarmouth
- Sir Robert Peel, 1st Baronet, British politician and industrialist and one of early textile manufacturers of the Industrial Revolution, father of Sir Robert Peel, twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- Robert Pierrepont, 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull
- Robert Raymond, 1st Baron Raymond
- Robert Reid, 1st Earl Loreburn
- Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick
- Robert Rolfe, 1st Baron Cranworth, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
- Lord Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford, British peer and politician
- Robert Windsor-Clive, 1st Earl of Plymouth, British nobleman and Conservative politician
- Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry
- Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, Irish/British statesman, British Foreign Secretary, central to the management of the War of the Sixth Coalition that defeated Napoleon, principal British diplomat at the Congress of Vienna, leader of the British House of Commons in the Liverpool, Chief Secretary for Ireland, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, one of the principal leaders of Irish Rebellion of 1798
Religious figures and saints
- Saint Robert Bellarmine (died in 1621), Jesuit Doctor of the Church, one of the leaders of Roman Inquisition and Galileo affair
- Saint Robert of Bury (died 1181)
- Saint Robert of Molesme (d. 1111), founder of the Cistercian Order
- Saint Robert of Newminster (d. 1159), established the Abbey of Newminster at Morpeth, Northumberland
- Roberto de Nobili (1577-1656), Italian Jesuit missionary to Southern India
- Roberto de' Nobili (1541-1559), Roman Catholic cardinal
- Robert de Sorbon (1201-1274), French theologian and founder of College of Sorbonne
- Saint Robert de Turlande (d. 1067), founding abbot of the Abbey of Casa Dei, also called Chaise-Dieu
Presidents and prime ministers
- Sir Robert Borden, Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Canada, best known for his leadership of Canada during World War I, member of the Imperial War Cabinet and a key figure in Conscription Crisis of 1917;
- Robert Abela, Maltese lawyer and politician, currently serving as the 14th prime minister of Malta
- Lord Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, British statesman, serving as Prime Minister three times for a total of over thirteen years, one of the principal commanders of Second Boer War, one of the establishers of British concentration camps during the war;
- Robert Fico, Slovak politician who served as Prime Minister of Slovakia from 2012 to 2018
- Robert Haab, Swiss politician and President of Switzerland
- Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, Lord High Treasurer of the British Empire, sometimes regarded as the first Prime Minister of Great Britain, one of the principal commanders of Nine Years' War and War of the Spanish Succession
- Robert "Bob" Hawke, Australian politician who served as Prime Minister of Australia and Leader of the Labor Party
- Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, British statesman and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1812 to 1827, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, one of the principal commanders of War of the Sixth Coalition and War of 1812
- Robert F. Kennedy, American politician and lawyer who served as the 64th United States Attorney General, United States Senator for New York, brother of the U.S. president John F. Kennedy, one of the principal commanders of Cuban Missile Crisis and Bay of Pigs Invasion, assassinated in June 1968;
- Robert Kocharyan, Armenian politician who served as the first president of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and the second president of Armenia between 1998 and 2008, one of the principal commanders of First Nagorno-Karabakh War;
- Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, English statesman, Conservative politician, and poet, who served as Viceroy of India (Governor-General) between 1876 and 1880 and British Ambassador to France from 1887 to 1891, one of the leading perpetrators of the Great Famine of 1876–1878
- Sir Robert Menzies, Australian politician who twice served as Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1939 to 1941 and again from 1949 to 1966, making him the longest serving prime minister of Australia in history, one of the principal commanders of Vietnam War and Malayan Emergency
- Sir Robert Peel, British statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, father of modern British policing, leader of Peelite, founder of Conservative Party of United Kingdom and the Metropolitan Police Service;
- Robert Schuman, Luxembourg-born French statesman, Christian Democrat, activist, Prime Minister of France, a reformist Minister of Finance and a Foreign Minister, one of the founders of the European Union, the Council of Europe and NATO;
- Sir Robert Stout, New Zealand politician who served as 13th Prime Minister of New Zealand on two occasions in the 19th century, and later Chief Justice of New Zealand;
- Robert Themptander, Swedish politician and public official who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1884 to 1888
- Roberto Sánchez Vilella, Governor of Puerto Rico, Head of State and Head of Government of Puerto Rico
- Sir Robert Walpole, British statesman who served as the first Prime Minister of Great Britain, one of the principal commanders of War of Austrian Succession and War of Jenkins' Ear
Dictators
- Baron Robert Clive, British army officer and privateer who established the military and political supremacy of the East India Company in Bengal, served as the Commander-in-Chief of British India, one of the organizers of the Great Bengal famine of 1770, one of the principal commanders of Carnatic Wars, Siege of Arcot, Battle of Arnee, Battle of Chingleput, Battle of Chandannagar and Battle of Plassey
- Robert Mugabe, former Zimbabwean politician and revolutionary, Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and President (Dictator) from 1987 to 2017, one of the principal commanders of Rhodesian Bush War, Kivu conflict and Second Congo War, the leading perpetrator of Gukurahundi Genocide
Secretaries of Defense
- Robert Gates, (1943) American statesman, scholar, intelligence analyst, and university president who served as the director of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Director of Central Intelligence and 22nd United States Secretary of Defense from 2006 to 2011, one of the principal commanders of 2011 military intervention in Libya and Iraq War
- Robert A. Lovett, (1895–1986) fourth United States Secretary of Defense, one of the principal commanders of Cold War, Berlin Blockade and Korean War
- Robert McNamara, (1916–2009) American business executive and the eighth United States Secretary of Defense, one of the principal commanders of Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis, key figure in Gulf of Tonkin incident, leader of Project 100,000 and Operation Rolling Thunder, one of the principal commanders of Vietnam War, best remembered for organising and escalating the war in terms of military presence, warfare and action
Wartime figures and military leaders
- Sir Robert Abercromby, British general, appointed Knight of the Order of the Bath, a Governor of Bombay (now Mumbai) and Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army and then Commander-in-Chief, India, one of the principal commanders of Battle of Crooked Billet and Siege of Yorktown
- Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, British Army officer, writer, founder and first Chief Scout of the world-wide Boy Scout Movement, and founder of the world-wide Girl Guide / Girl Scout Movement, one of the principal commanders of Anglo-Ashanti wars, Siege of Mafeking, Second Matabele War and Second Boer War
- Robert S. Beightler, American military officer, major General, military governor of Okinawa, War Department General Staff, commander of the 37th Infantry Division, one of the principal commanders of Bougainville campaign and Battle of Manila (1945)
- Robert Blake, British Royal Navy officer and one of the most important military commanders of the Commonwealth of England, one of the most famous English admirals of the 17th century, one of the principal commanders of Anglo-Spanish War (1654-1660), First Anglo-Dutch War and Battle of the Kentish Knock
- Robert Brooke-Popham, senior commander in the Royal Air Force and leader of Operation Matador (1941)
- Robert Brownrigg, British statesman, general and soldier who brought the last part of Sri Lanka under British rule, Governors of British Ceylon, General Officer Commanding, Ceylon, one of the principal commanders of Great Rebellion of 1817–18
- Robert Bruce, first chief commander of Saint Petersburg, one of the principal commanders of Great Northern War
- Robert Lee Bullard, senior officer in the United States Army during World War I, the principal commander of Battle of Cantigny
- Robert H. Dick, Scottish soldier, one of the principal commanders of First Anglo-Sikh War
- Robert L. Eichelberger, general officer in the United States Army who commanded the Eighth United States Army in the Southwest Pacific Area during World War II, one of United States most decorated and skillful military commanders, one of the principal commanders of Siberian Intervention, Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, Battle of Buna–Gona, Operation Downfall, Battle of Davao, Philippines Campaign (1944-1945), Landing at Aitape, Battle of Hollandia, New Guinea campaign, Invasion of Palawan, Battle of Biak, Battle of the Visayas and Battle of Mindanao
- Robert von Eggenberg, Austrian colonel-general, one of the principal commanders of Battle of Sisak and Long Turkish War
- Robert Eikhe, Latvian Bolshevik, provincial head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Siberia during the forced collectivization of agriculture, perpetrator of numerous mass executions during the Great Purge
- Roberto Farinacci, leading Italian Fascist politician and important member of the Grand Council of Fascism, Secretary of National Fascist Party and one of the leading perpetrators of the Holocaust in Italy
- Robert L. Ghormley, admiral in the United States Navy, serving as Commander of South Pacific Area during World War II, one of the principal commanders of Guadalcanal campaign
- Robert Rollo Gillespie, officer in the British Army, one of the principal commanders of Anglo-Nepalese War, Vellore mutiny, Invasion of Java (1811) and Battle of Nalapani
- Robert Gysae, a German U-boat commander in the Kriegsmarine during World War II, one of the main commanders of Battle of the Atlantic
- Robert Haining, British Army officer, one of the principal commanders of 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine
- Robert Peverell Hichens, British Lieutenant Commander and the most highly decorated officer of the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR)
- Robert Hoke, Confederate major general during the American Civil War, one of the principal commanders of Battle of Plymouth (1864)
- Robert B. Johnston, retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant general whose last duty assignment was as Commander, Marine Forces Atlantic Marine Forces Europe and II Marine Expeditionary Force, one of the principal commanders of Operation Restore Hope and Gulf War
- Robert Kekewich, British Army officer, principal leader of Battle of Rooiwal
- Robert E. Lee, American and Confederate general, supreme commander of the Confederate States Army during American Civil War, one of the most famous military commanders of his time, widely regarded as one of the greatest generals of all time and one of the founders of modern warfare, served as superintendent of United States Military Academy;
- Robert A. Lewis, United States Army Air Forces officer serving in the Pacific Theatre during World War II, one of the pilots of the Enola G, the B-29 Superfortress bomber which dropped the atomic bomb Little Boy on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 during the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- Robert A. Little, World War I fighter pilot and the most successful Australian flying ace;
- Sir Robert Mansell, English Royal Navy officer and a member of parliament (MP), mostly for Welsh constituencies, one of the principal commanders of Battle of the Narrow Seas
- Robert McDade, United States Army colonel, one of the principal commanders of Pleiku Campaign and Battle of la Drang
- Robert McGowan Littlejohn, major general in the United States Army, leader of War Assets Administration
- Robert Monckton, officer of the British Army and also a colonial administrator in British North America, one of the principal commanders of Battle of Fort Beauséjour, St. John River Campaign, Battle of the Plains of Abraham and Capture of Martinique
- Robert Munro, 18th Baron of Foulis, known as the Black Baron, Scottish soldier and military warlord, one of the principal commanders of Siege of Stralsund (1628) and Battle of Lützen (1632)
- Robert Monro, Scottish general during Thirty Years' War, one of the principal commanders of Siege of Stralsund (1628), Battle of Frankfurt an der Oder, Battle of Breitenfeld (1631) and Battle of Benburb
- Sir Robert Moray, Scottish soldier, statesman, diplomat, judge, spy and natural philosopher, one of the founders of Royal Society and Freemasonry
- Robert Nivelle, French artillery officer who served as one of the principal commanders of the Boxer Rebellion and led the French forces during World War I as commander in-chief of French army, one of the principal commanders of many WWI battles, including Western Front, Nivelle Offensive, Battle of the Hills, Second Battle of the Aisne and Battle of Verdun, the longest battle in history;
- Robert "Robin" Olds Jr., American fighter pilot and general officer in the U.S. Air Force, one of the principal commanders of Operation Bolo and Action of 23 August 1967
- Robert Olds Sr., general officer in the US Army Air Forces, instructor at Air Corps Tactical School, member of the Bomber Mafia and theorist of strategic air power
- Robert Orme, British soldier and military leader, one of the principal commanders of Battle of the Monongahela in July 1755
- Robert Patterson, Irish-born United States major general during the American Civil War, one of the principal commanders of Battle of Hoke's Run and First Battle of Bull Run
- Sir Robert Pigot, 2nd Baronet, British Army officer during the American Revolutionary War, one of the principal commanders of Battle of Rhode Island and Battle of Bunker Hill
- Robert W. Porter Jr., United States Army four-star general who served as Commander in Chief, United States Southern Command from 1965 to 1969, one of the key figures in Operation Condor
- Robert Rogers, American colonial frontiersman and officer in the British Army, commander of Rogers' Rangers, one of the principal commanders of Battle on Snowshoes (1757), Battle on Snowshoes, St. Francis Raid, Battle of Bloody Run and Battle of Mamaroneck
- Robert Ross, officer in the British Army, born in Ireland, one of the principal commanders of War of 1812, Battle of Bladensburg, Burning of Washington, Battle of Baltimore and Battle of North Point
- Robert Ritter von Greim, German Field Marshal (the highest military rank of Germany) and pilot, second and last supreme commander of German Air Forces "Luftwaffe", one of Nazi Germanys most decorated and skillful generals, one of the principal commanders of Battle of Kursk (the largest tank battle in history), Operation Kutuzov and Warsaw uprising
- Roberto Rodriguez Fernandez, Cuban revolutionary, one of the principal commanders of Cuban Revolution and Battle of Santa Clara
- Robert Sale, British army officer, one of the principal commanders of Kabul Expedition (1842) and Battle of Jellalabad
- Robert Gould Shaw, American officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War, commander of the first all-African American regiment (the 54th Massachusetts) in the Northeast, one of the principal commanders of Second Battle of Fort Wagner
- Robert Sink, senior United States Army officer who fought during World War II, the Korean War, and early parts of the Vietnam War, mostly remembered for his command of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Division, one of the principal commanders of Battle of Bloody Gulch
- Robert F. Stockton, United States Navy commodore, United States Senator from New Jersey, Military Governor of California, one of the principal commanders of Mexican-American War
- Sir Robert Stopford, distinguished officer in the Royal Navy, one of the principal commanders of Egyptian–Ottoman War (1839–1841), Oriental Crisis of 1840 and Invasion of Java (1811)
- Robert A. Theobald, United States Navy officer who served in World War I and World War II, achiever of the rank of rear admiral, the air forces commander during Attack on Pearl Harbor
- Robert F. Travis, United States Army Air Forces general during World War II
- Robert Toombs, American lawyer, planter, army general, and politician from Georgia who became one of the organizers of the Confederacy and served as its first Secretary of State, one of the principal commanders of Peninsula Campaign and Battle of Columbus (1865)
- Robert Stanford Tuck, British fighter pilot, flying ace, and test pilot, member of the Royal Air Force, war hero of World War II
- Robert C. Tyler, Confederate Brigadier General during the American Civil War, one of the principal commanders of Battle of West Point
- Robert O. Tyler, American soldier who served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, one of the principal commanders of Battle of Gettysburg
- Robert von Ungern-Sternberg, also known as The Mad Baron or The Bloody White Baron, Austrian-born, Russian Empire's Baltic German anti-Bolshevik lieutenant general in the Russian Civil War and then an independent warlord whose Asiatic Cavalry Division wrested control of Mongolia from the Republic of China in 1921 after its occupation, one of the principal commanders of Mongolian Revolution of 1921 and Siberian Intervention, remembered as one of the most cruel and violent military leaders of all time;
- Robert "Roy" Urquhart, British Army officer, one of the principal commanders of Battle of Arnhem, Operation Market Garden, Operation Doomsday and Malayan Emergency
- Robert Viren, general, admiral and career naval officer in the Imperial Russian Navy in Russian Empire, one of the principal commanders of Russo-Japanese War, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet;
- Robert Whittaker, City of London banker and a senior officer in Britain's part-time Territorial Army (TA), chief of staff at Anti-Aircraft Command during World War II
- Robert Zapp, German U-boat commander in World War II, one of the principal commanders of Torpedo Alley
Other military
- Robert B. Abrams, four-star general in the United States Army who currently serves as the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, concurrently serving as the commander of United Nations Command and commander of R.O.K.-U.S. Combined Forces Command, previously served as the 22nd commanding general of U.S. Army Forces Command
- Robert E. Cushman Jr., United States Marine Corps general who served as the 25th Commandant of the Marine Corps
- Robert Kajuga, national president and leader of the MRND-affiliated extremist militia, the Interahamwe, one of the leading perpetrators of Rwandan genocide, one of the principal commanders of First Congo War
- Robert Scothrup Lee Confederate first sergeant in the American Civil War
- Robert J. Miller, United States Army Special Forces soldier of Company A, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne)
- Robert Neller, retired United States Marine Corps four-star general who served as the 37th Commandant of the Marine Corps
- Robert H. Reed, General in the United States Air Force and the former chief of staff of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
- Robert Rheault, American colonel in the U.S. Army Special Forces who served as commander of the First Special Forces Group in Okinawa, and the Fifth Special Forces Group in Vietnam
- Robert M. Shoemaker, United States Army general and former commander of the United States Army Forces Command, inductee into the Aviation Hall of Fame
Nazis
- Robert Grawitz, Nazi German physician and an SS functionary, chief physician of the SS, head of the German Red Cross, overseer of the experimentation on inmates in Nazi concentration camps, one of the leading organisers of euthanasia and mass killings during Aktion T4;
- Robert Ley, DAF Führer of Nazi Germany (head of the German Labour Front), high-ranking member of the SS, labour and economical leader of Nazi Germany, founder of Volkswagen, creator of NSDAP School system, also known for his role in the Holocaust, Final Solution and Aktion T4, Kristallnacht and Night of the Long Knives as well as managing the labour in Nazi concentration camps;
- Robert Mulka, German Nazi SS-Hauptsturmführer and later SS-Obersturmführer, commander of Auschwitz concentration camp, holocaust perpetrator who played a major role in the transformation of Auschwitz from a concentration camp into an extermination complex;
- Robert Ritter, Nazi German "racial scientist" doctor of psychology and medicine, with a background in child psychiatry and the biology of criminality, one of the leading perpetrators of Romani Genocide;
- Robert Wagner, Gauleiter of Gau Baden, Gauleiter of Alsace and head of the civil government of Alsace during the Nazi German occupation of France during World War II, one of the leaders of Beer Hall Putsch involved in large scale mass killings during the Holocaust, executed for war crimes
Nuclear physicists
- Robert Oppenheimer, American theoretical physicist, professor of physics at the University of California, wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, principal leader of the Manhattan Project, founder of Nuclear Warfare, commander of the Nuclear Test "Trinity", developer and inventor of the atomic bomb
- Robert Serber, American physicist who participated in Robert Oppenheimers nuclear weapon development project known as Manhattan Project, best remembered for giving the names of Thin man, Fat Man and Little Boy nuclear bombs
Explorers
- Robert Bartlett, Newfoundland-born American Arctic explorer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, accompanied United States Navy Commander Robert Peary on his attempts to reach the North Pole
- Robert O'Hara Burke, Irish soldier and police officer who explored Australia, leader of the first expedition to cross Australia from south to north
- Robert Dudley, English explorer and cartographer
- Sir Robert McClure, Irish explorer of the Arctic who in 1854 traversed the Northwest Passage by boat and sledge and was the first to circumnavigate the Americas
- Robert Peary, American explorer and United States Navy officer who made several expeditions to the Arctic, reached the geographic North Pole with his expedition on April 6, 1909, believed to be the first man to have ever reached the North Pole
- Robert Falcon Scott, British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions including Discovery Expedition and Terra Nova Expedition, one of the leading figures of Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, widely regarded as one of the greatest explorers of all time
Movie industry
- Robert Altman (1925–2006), American film director, screenwriter, and producer
- Robert "Robbie" Amell (born 1988), Canadian-American actor and producer
- Robert "Rob" Benedict (born 1970), American actor and writer
- Robert "Bob" Bergen, American voice actor
- Robert Carlyle (born 1961), Scottish actor
- Robert "Bob" Chapek (born 1960), American media executive and businessman, chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, the current CEO of Walt Disney Company
- Robert "Robbie" Coltrane (born 1950), Scottish actor and author
- Robert Cummings (1910–1990), American actor
- Robert Davi (born 1954), American actor
- Robert De Niro (born 1953), American actor, director and producer
- Robert Downey Sr. (1936–2021), American actor, director and producer
- Robert Downey Jr. (born 1965), American actor
- Roberto Draghetti (1960–2020), Italian actor and voice actor
- Robert Duvall (born 1931), American actor
- Robert Eggers (born 1983), American film director, screenwriter and production designer
- Robert Englund (born 1947), American actor, voice actor, singer and film director
- Robert Fuller, American horse rancher and actor
- Robert Goulet (1933–2007), French-Canadian singer and actor
- Robert Guillaume (1927–2017), American actor and singer
- Robert Gustafsson (born 1964), Swedish comedian and actor
- Robert Hardy (1925–2017), British actor
- Robert Hays (born 1947), American actor
- Robert "Bob" Iger (born 1951), American media executive, film producer, author and businessman, chairman and chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company
- Robert Irwin (born 2003), Australian television personality and wildlife photographer
- Robert "Rob" Kardashian (born 1987), American television personality
- Robert Knepper (born 1959), American actor
- Robert "Rob" Letterman (born 1970), American film director and screenwriter
- Robert "Rob" Lowe (born 1964), American actor, producer and director
- Robert "Rob" Marshall (born 1960), American film and theater director, producer and choreographer
- Robert McKimson (1910–1977), American animator and illustrator, best known for his work on creating the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons
- Robert "Rob" Minkoff (born 1962), American film and animation director
- Robert Mitchum (1917–1997), American film actor, director, author, poet, composer and singer
- Robert Montgomery (1904–1981), American actor, director and producer
- Robert Mulligan (1925–2008), American film director
- Robert Patrick (born 1958), American actor and voice actor
- Robert Pattinson (born 1986), British actor
- Robert "Bob" Peck (1945-1999), English stage, television and film actor
- Robert Redford,(born 1936), American actor, director and producer
- Robert Rodriguez (born 1968), American film director, screenwriter, producer, musician, filmmaker and visual effects supervisor, best known for his film Alita: Battle Angel
- Robert Ryan (1909–1973), American actor
- Robert Schwentke,(born 1968), German film director
- Robert Sheehan (born 1988), Irish actor
- Robert Singer, American film director and producer
- Robert Smigel (born 1960), American actor, voice actor, comedian, humorist, writer, director, producer and puppeteer
- Robert Adolf Stemmle (1903–1974), German screenwriter and film director
- Robert Stromberg (born 1965), American special effects artist, designer and film director
- Robert Taylor (1911–1969) American actor, one of the most famous Hollywood actors of his time
- Robert Vaughn (1932–2016), American actor
- Robert Wagner (born 1930), American actor
- Robert Walker (1918–1951), American actor
- Robert B. Weide (born 1959, American screenwriter, producer and director
- Robert Wise (1914–2005), American film director
- Robert Young (1907–1998), American actor
- Robert Zemeckis (born 1952), Lithuanian-Italian born American film director, screenwriter and producer, best known for his "Back to the Future" film trilogy, frequently credited as an innovator in visual effects
Musicians
- Robert Abisi, member of the electronic music and DJ duo Lost Kings
- Robert Babicz, Polish born German electronic music producer, DJ and mastering engineer
- Robert "Rob" Bourdon, American musician, drummer and founding member of the rock band Linkin Park
- Roberto Carlos, Brazilian singer-songwriter, also known as King of Latin Music or simply The King
- Robert "Bob" Crosby, American jazz singer and bandleader, best known for his group the Bob-Cats
- Robert van de Corput, real name of the award-winning Dutch DJ, twice worlds No.1 DJ, composer and music producer Hardwell;
- Robert "Bobby" Darin, American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, impressionist, and actor
- Robert DeLong, American electronic musician, record producer, composer and performer
- Robert Francis, American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter;
- Robert Fripp, English musician, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the guitarist, founder and longest-lasting member of the band King Crimson
- Robert "Bobby" Hackett, American jazz musician
- Robert "Rob" Halford, English singer and songwriter, lead vocalist of the Grammy Award-winning heavy metal band Judas Priest, also a member of Fight, Two, Halford, Great White and Black Sabbath
- Robert Hughes, real name of the Canadian trap music DJ and record producer known as Vincent and Tiger Drool;
- Robert Hunter, American poet, principle lyricist for the rock band Grateful Dead
- Robert "Rob" Hyman, American singer, songwriter, keyboard and accordion player, producer, arranger, recording studio owner and a founding member of the rock band The Hooters
- Robert Janson, Polish composer, singer, guitarist, leader and co-founder of the band Varius Manx
- Robert Johnson, American blues singer-songwriter and musician;
- Robert Kelly, American singer, songwriter, record producer, and former semi-professional basketball player who helped redefine R&B and hip hop, earning the nicknames "King of R&B" and "King of Pop-Soul"
- Robert "Bob" Kerr, comic musician who plays trumpet and cornet
- Robert "Robby" Krieger, American guitarist and singer-songwriter best known as the guitarist of the rock band The Doors, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- Robert "Bob" Marley, Jamaican singer-songwriter, widely regarded as one of the greatest musicians of all time
- Robert "Bobby" McFerrin, American musician, singer, conductor, arranger and record producer
- Robert Miles, Swiss-born Italian DJ and record producer, inventor of the dream trance genre;
- Robert Del Naja, British artist, musician, singer and songwriter, founding member of the band Massive Attack
- Roberto "Bert" Nievera, Filipino-American singer
- Robert Palmer, English composer, songwriter, singer and record producer;
- Robert Plant, English singer, songwriter, and musician, lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin;
- Robert "Bob" Rifo, founder of the Italian electronic music project The Bloody Beetroots
- Robert Ritchie, American singer-songwriter, rapper, musician, record producer, and actor known as Kid Rock;
- Robert "Rob" Scallon, American YouTuber, musician and multi-instrumentalist
- Robert Schumann, German composer and music critic, one of the greatest composers of romantic era;
- Robert "Bob" Seger, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- Robert Smith, lead singer of The Cure;
- Robert "Rob" Swire, Australian electronic music producer and DJ, also known as one of the members of dubstep/electro house duo Knife Party and drum and bass band Pendulum;
- Robert Tepper, American songwriter, composer, recording artist and singer
- Robert Trujillo, American singer and songwriter, one of the members of American heavy metal band Metallica;
- Robert "Bobby" Vee, American singer, songwriter, musician and teen idol
- Robert Volkmann, German composer
- Robert "Rob" Zombie, American musician, singer, songwriter, programmer, voice actor, filmmaker and founding member of the heavy metal band White Zombie
- Robert "Bob" Weir, American musician and songwriter, one of the founders of the rock band Grateful Dead, also a member of bands The Other Ones, The Dead, Kingfish, Bobby and the Midnites, RatDog, Furthur and Dead & Company
- Robert Rihmeek Williams, American rapper, singer and activist known as Meek Mill
- Robert "Robbie" Williams, British singer and songwriter
- Robert van Winkle, real name of American rapper, actor, and television host Vanilla Ice
- Robert "Bob" Wiseman, Canadian film composer, songwriter and music teacher
- Robert Allen Zimmerman, real name of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan.
Scientists
- Robert Boyle, British natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor, first modern chemist, and one of the founders of modern chemistry, and one of the pioneers of modern experimental scientific method, also remembered for creating Boyle's law, which describes the inversely proportional relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas, if the temperature is kept constant within a closed system, one of the founders of the Royal Society, widely regarded as one of the greatest scientists of all time
- Robert Bunsen, German chemist who discovered caesium in 1860 and rubidium in 1861, pioneer of photochemistry and organoarsenic chemistry and developer of the Bunsen burner
- Robert F. Christy, Canadian-American theoretical physicist, astrophysicist, one of the last surviving people to have worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II, president of California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
- Robert Darwin, English medical doctor, who today is best known as the father of the naturalist Charles Robert Darwin
- Robert Esnault-Pelterie, French aircraft designer and spaceflight theorist, developer of ballistic missiles, father of modern rocketry
- Robert Fulton, American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing a commercially successful steamboat known as North River Steamboat
- Robert H. Goddard, American engineer, professor, physicist, and inventor, credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, father of the modern rocketry
- Robert C. Green, American medical geneticist, physician, and public health researcher
- Robert J. Van de Graaff, engineer and physicist, inventor of high-voltage Van de Graaff generators
- Robert Gardiner Hill, British surgeon specialising in the treatment of lunacy, normally credited with being the first superintendent of the Lincoln Lunatic Asylum to develop a mode of treatment in which reliance on mechanical medical restraint and coercion could be dropped altogether in 1838
- Robert Hooke, English natural philosopher, architect and polymath, best known for discovering and naming the Cell in 1665 and numerous other contributions, widely regarded as one of the greatest scientists of all time
- Sir Robert Jones, 1st Baronet, Welsh orthopaedic surgeon who helped to establish the modern specialty of orthopaedic surgery in Britain, early proponent of the use of radiography in orthopaedics, and described the eponymous Jones fracture
- Robert Koch, German physician and microbiologist, founder of modern bacteriology, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1905 for his research on Tuberculosis, widely regarded as one of the greatest scientists of all time
- Robert Andrews Millikan, American experimental physicist honored with the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1923 for the measurement of the elementary electric charge and for his work on the photoelectric effect
- Sir Robert Robinson, Nobel Prize and Medal of Freedom winning British organic chemist
- Robert A. Rolfe, English botanist specialising in the study of orchids
- Robert Shapiro, professor emeritus of chemistry at New York University, best known for his work on the origin of life
- Robert Winston, British professor, medical doctor, scientist
- Robert W. Wood, American physicist and inventor who is often cited as being a pivotal contributor to the field of optics and a pioneer of infrared photography and ultraviolet photography
- Robert J. White, American neurosurgeon best known for his head transplants on living monkeys
Intelligence officers
- Robert Hanssen, former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) secret agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services against the United States from 1979 to 2001
- Robert S. Mueller III, American attorney who served as the sixth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2001 to 2013, leader of the investigations of September 11 attacks and Boston marathon bombing
Criminals
- Robert J. Anderson (1966–2006), American murderer
- Robert Bales, former United States army soldier who committed the Kandahar massacre
- Robert John Bardo, American assassin of Rebecca Schaeffer
- Robert Berdella, American serial killer, known as The Kansas City Butcher and The Collector
- Robert Durst, American suspected serial killer
- Robert Black, Scottish serial killer
- Ted Robert Bundy, American serial killer, one of the most well known criminals of all time
- Robert Newton Ford, 19th century American outlaw
- Robert Garrow, American spree killer
- Robert Hansen, American serial killer known as "The Butcher Baker"
- Robert Hawkins, mass murderer who perpetrated the Westroads Mall shooting
- Robert Jay Mathews, American neo-Nazi terrorist and the leader of The Order, an American white supremacist militant group
- Robert Maudsley, English serial killer
- Robert A. Long, American spree killer who perpetrated the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings
- Robert "Bobby" Long, American serial killer and rapist
- Robert Napper, British serial killer
- Robert Perrino (1938–1992), Bonanno crime family associate and murder victim
- Robert Pickton, Canadian serial killer
- Robert Ben Rhoades, American serial killer known as "The Truck Stop Killer"
- Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, Canadian drug contrabandist
- Robert M. Shelton, leader of United Klans of America, a Ku Klux Klan group
- Robert Steinhäuser, German mass murderer and perpetrator of the Erfurt school massacre
- Robert Stroud, a convicted murderer, American federal prisoner and author known as the "Birdman of Alcatraz" who has been cited as one of the most notorious criminals in the United States
- Robert Tilton, American televangelist and fraud
- Robert Trimbole, Australian businessman, drug baron and organised crime boss
- Robert Lee Yates, American serial killer from Spokane, Washington
Judges
- Robert J. Cindrich, American judge, former United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
- Robert H. Jackson, American attorney and judge who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, previously served as United States Solicitor General, and United States Attorney General, the Chief United States Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials
- Robert Morgenthau, American lawyer, District Attorney for New York County and United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York
- Robert Price, British judge and politician
- Robert Rajanayagam Selvadurai (1894-1973), Sri Lankan Tamil lawyer, police magistrate, and civil servant
Political figures
- Robert Buckland, Welsh Conservative Party politician and barrister who served as Solicitor General for England and Wales and Minister of State for Prisons, currently serving as Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor
- Robert J. Bulkley, United States Democratic Party Politician from Ohio;
- Robert Baird, American clergyman and author
- Robert Byrd, American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Senator from West Virginia for over 51 years, from 1959 until his death in 2010
- Robert Chadwick, Pennsylvania State Representative
- Robert J. Clendening, Pennsylvania State Representative
- Robert Crosser, U.S. Representative from Ohio, the longest serving member of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Ohio
- Robert "Bob" Dole, American politician and attorney who represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996
- Robert Budd Dwyer, the 30th State Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, best remembered for his public suicide on live TV;
- Robert A. Green, U.S Representative from Florida
- Arthur Robert Guinness, Zealand politician and Speaker of the House of Representatives
- Robert Gunawardena (1904-1971), founder of the Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party, diplomat
- Robert G. Harper, a Federalist, member of the United States Senate from Maryland, serving from January 1816 until December of the same year;
- Robert M. La Follette Jr., U.S. senator from Wisconsin from 1925 to 1947
- Robert J. Gamble, Representative and Senator from South Dakota
- Robert Edward Jayatilaka, Sri Lankan Sinhala politician
- Sir Robert Laurie, 5th Baronet, Scottish soldier and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1774 to 1804
- Robert Lee Henry, Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas from 1897 to 1917;
- Robert Lowe, British statesman and pivotal figure who shaped British politics in the latter half of the 19th century
- Robert James Manion, Canadian politician best known for leading the Conservative Party of Canada from 1938 until 1940.
- Robert "Bob" Moses, American educator and civil rights activist, leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement, co-founder of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, one of the founders of Freedom Summer project
- Robert "Beto" O'Rourke, American politician who represented Texas's 16th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019 who sought the 2020 Democratic nomination for President of the United States, also a past member of the music band Foss and hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow
- Robert Schmidt, Reich Minister of Food and Agriculture of Germany
- Robert Sobukwe, prominent South African political dissident and teacher who founded and became the first president of the Pan Africanist Congress
- Robert Roosevelt, a sportsman, author and politician who served as a United States Representative from New York and as Minister to the Hague, brother of the president of America Theodore Roosevelt;
- Robert K. Steel, American businessman, financier and government official;
- Robert A. Taft, American conservative politician, lawyer, and scion of the Taft family;
- Robert L. "Bob" Turner, American businessman and politician
- Robert F. Williams, American civil rights leader and author best known for serving as president of the Monroe, North Carolina chapter of the NAACP
Secretaries of War
- Robert Todd Lincoln, American politician, lawyer, and businessman, the first son of Abraham Lincoln, United States Secretary of War and United States Minister to the United Kingdom
- Robert P. Patterson, United States Secretary of War
Secretaries of State
- Lord Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe, Secretary of State for India during World War I and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
- Robert M. T. Hunter, Virginia lawyer, politician and plantation owner, U.S. Representative (1837–1843, 1845–1847), Speaker of the House (1839–1841), and U.S. Senator (1847–1861), during the American Civil War, the Confederate States Secretary of State (1861–1862) and then a Confederate Senator (1862–1865)
- Robert Smith, second United States Secretary of the Navy from 1801 to 1809 and the sixth United States Secretary of State from 1809 to 1811
- Sir Robert Southwell, Irish diplomat, Secretary of State for Ireland and President of the Royal Society from 1690
Governors
- Robert J. Bentley, American politician and physician who served as the 53rd Governor of Alabama from 2011 until 2017;
- Robert Brooke, soldier and Virginia political figure who served as the tenth Governor of Virginia
- Robert Brooke, lieutenant-colonel in the army of Bengal and governor of the island of St Helena from 1788 to 1800
- Robert Carter I, American colonist, Colonial Governor of Virginia and Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses;
- Robert Stockton Green, American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 27th Governor of New Jersey from 1887 to 1890
- Robert Hunter, British military officer, colonial governor of New York and New Jersey from 1710 to 1720, and governor of Jamaica from 1727 to 1734;
- Robert M. La Follette, American lawyer and politician who served as the 20th Governor of Wisconsin;
- Robert S. Kerr, American businessman and politician, 12th Governor of Oklahoma
- Robert S. Kerr III, American politician, Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma
- Robert Lowry, American politician and a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War, who served as 32nd Governor of Mississippi;
- Robert D. Orr, American politician and diplomat who served as the 45th Governor of Indiana from 1981 to 1989
- Robert E. Quinn, American attorney and politician from Rhode Island who served as the 58th Governor of Rhode Island and Judge for the Rhode Island Superior Court
- Robert Marcellus Stewart, 14th Governor of Missouri from 1857 to 1861, during the years just prior to the American Civil War;
Mayors
- Robert Worth Bingham, American politician, judge, United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom and mayor of Louisville, Kentucky
- Robert Brent, the first Mayor of Washington, D.C., the federal capital of the United States;
- Robert T. Conrad, the first mayor of Philadelphia to take office following the Consolidation Act of 1854;
- Robert "Rob" Ford, Canadian politician and businessman who served as the 64th Mayor of Toronto;
- Robert King High, American politician who served as 29th mayor of the city of Miami;
- Robert H. Morris, 64th mayor of New York City;
- Robert F. Wagner Jr., American politician who served three terms as the mayor of New York City from 1954 through 1965
Founding fathers of United States
- Robert R. Livingston, American lawyer, politician, diplomat from New York, 1st United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs, 1st Chancellor of New York and a Founding Father of the United States
- Robert Morris, English-born merchant, United States Secretary of the Navy, United States Superintendent of Finance and a Founding Father of the United States
Literary figures
- Robert Browning, English poet and playwright whose mastery of the dramatic monologue made him one of the foremost 19th century poets
- Robert Burns, Scottish/British poet and lyricist, widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland
- Robert Cormier, American author and journalist, known for his deeply pessimistic novels
- Robert Frost, American poet
- Robert Hardman (born 1965), British journalist, author, and documentary filmmaker
- Robert Harris, English novelist and former BBC reporter
- Robert A. Heinlein, American science-fiction writer, one of the pioneers of hard science fiction genre
- Robert Hichens, English journalist, novelist, music lyricist, short story writer, music critic
- Robert E. Howard, American author who wrote pulp fiction, well known for his character Conan the Barbarian, regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre
- Robert G. Ingersoll, American writer and orator during the Golden Age of Freethought, who campaigned in defense of agnosticism
- Robert "Bob" Kane, American comic book artist and writer, best known for creating the character Batman
- Robert Kirkman, American comic book author best known for creating The Walking Dead
- Robert "Rob" Liefeld, American comic book artist and writer, best known for creating the character Deadpool
- Robert Rozhdestvensky, Soviet Russian poet, regarded as one of the most significant Russian poets
- Robert W. Service, British-Canadian poet and writer
- Robert J.C. Stead, Canadian novelist
- Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, musician and travel writer, best known for his work Treasure Island, which became one of the most popular literary works of all time
- Robert Anton Wilson, American author, futurist, philosopher and self-described agnostic mystic, co-author (with Robert Shea) of The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Businessmen
- Robert Bosch, German industrialist, businessman, engineer and inventor, founder of Robert Bosch GmbH (Bosch)
- Robert Kardashian, American attorney and businessman
- Robert Kiyosaki, American businessman and author, founder of the Rich Dad Company
- Robert Kyncl, American business executive, Chief Business Officer of YouTube and former Vice President of Content Acquisitions of Netflix
- Robert Napier, Scottish marine engineer and founder of Robert Napier and Sons
- Robert Miles Sloman, English-German shipbuilder, ship owner and sailor
- Robert Smalls, American businessman, publisher, and politician who, born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina, freed himself, his crew, and their families during the American Civil War by commandeering a Confederate transport ship, CSS Planter in 1862
- Robert F. Smith, American billionaire, businessman, philanthropist, chemical engineer, and investor, founder, chairman, and CEO of private equity firm Vista Equity Partners
- Robert Trump, American real estate developer and business executive, brother of the president of America Donald Trump
- Robert Winthrop, wealthy banker and capitalist in New York City
Administrators of NASA
- Robert A. Frosch, American scientist who was the fifth administrator of NASA from 1977 to 1981
- Robert M. Lightfoot Jr., engineer and former Acting Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), serving from January 20, 2017 until April 23, 2018, making him the longest-serving Acting Administrator in NASA history
Astronauts
- Robert L. Behnken, United States Air Force officer, NASA astronaut and former Chief of the Astronaut Office
- Robert D. Cabana, director of NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center, a former NASA astronaut, and a veteran of four Space Shuttle flights
- Robert J. Cenker, American aerospace and electrical engineer, aerospace systems consultant, and former astronaut
- Robert Crippen, American retired naval officer and aviator, test pilot, aerospace engineer, and retired astronaut
- Robert Curbeam, former NASA astronaut and captain in the United States Navy
- Robert L. Gibson, former American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, aeronautical engineer, and a retired NASA astronaut, as well as a professional pilot and regular racer at the annual Reno Air Races
- Robert S. Kimbrough, retired United States Army officer, and a NASA astronaut
- Robert Lawrence Jr., a United States Air Force officer and the first African-American astronaut
- Robert F. Overmyer, American test pilot, naval aviator, aeronautical engineer, physicist, United States Marine Corps officer and USAF/NASA astronaut
- Robert A. Parker, American physicist and astronomer, former Director of the NASA Management Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and a retired NASA astronaut
- Robert Satcher, American physician, chemical engineer and NASA astronaut
- Robert C. Springer, retired American astronaut and test pilot
- Robert L. Stewart, retired brigadier general of the United States Army and a former NASA astronaut
- Robert Thirsk, a Canadian engineer and physician, and a former Canadian Space Agency astronaut
- Roberto Vittori, Italian air force officer and an ESA astronaut
Sportsmen
- Robert Green, English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, played in the Premier League and Football League and for the England national team
- Robert Alexander, Irish sportsman
- Roberto Baggio, Italian former professional footballer who mainly played as a second striker, or as an attacking midfielder
- Roberto Carlos, Brazilian footballer, widely regarded as one of the best football players of all time
- Robert Griffin III, American football quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League
- Robert Gsellman (born 1993), American baseball player
- Robert Howard, Irish Grandmaster of taekwondo
- Robert "Bobby" Hull, Canadian former ice hockey player who is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time
- Róbert Jež, retired Slovak footballer
- Robert Kerr, Irish Canadian sprinter
- Robert "Robbie" Kerr, British racing driver
- Robert Lewandowski, Polish football player who plays as a striker for Bayern Munich and is the captain of the Poland national team
- Roberto López Ufarte, Basque former footballer
- Roberto Mancini, Italian football manager and former player who is the manager of the Italy national team
- Robert "Bob" McNamara, American baseball player
- Robert Alexander Michel Melki (born 1992), Swedish-Lebanese footballer
- Robert Mühren, Dutch professional footballer
- Robert Person (born 1969), American baseball player
- Robert "Bobby" Orr, Canadian former professional ice hockey player, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest of all time
- Robert Remus, American professional wrestler known as Sgt. Slaughter
- Robert "Rob" Terry, Welsh professional wrestler and bodybuilder
- Robert Whittaker, New Zealand-born Australian professional mixed martial artist
- Robert Wickens, Canadian racing driver
Paranormal
- Robert the Doll, a supposedly haunted doll exhibited at a museum, center of an urban legend
Others
- Robert Ballard, retired United States Navy officer and a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island who is best known for the discovery of the wrecks of the RMS Titanic in 1985
- Robert Barclay Allardice, generally known as Captain Barclay, Scottish walker of the early 19th century, known as the celebrated pedestrian, considered the father of the 19th century sport of pedestrianism, a precursor to racewalking
- Robert Bevan, British painter, draughtsman and lithographer, founding member of the Camden Town Group, the London Group, and the Cumberland Market Group
- Robert Capa, Hungarian war photographer and photojournalist
- Robert Chung, Hong Kong academician, former Director of the Public Opinion Programme (POP) of the University of Hong Kong, head of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute
- Robert Conquest, an English-American historian and poet
- Robert Cornelius, American pioneer of photography and a lamp manufacturer who took the first light picture ever taken and whose self-taken portrait is the first known photographic portrait taken in America
- Robert de Cotte, French architect-administrator, under whose design control of the royal buildings of France the earliest notes presaging the Rococo style were introduced
- Robert G. Elliott, American executioner
- Robert Elms, English writer and broadcaster
- Robert Gibbings, Irish artist and author who was most noted for his work as a wood engraver and sculptor
- Robert Gregg, Anglican Archbishop
- Robert Gray, first Anglican Bishop of Cape Town and Metropolitan of Africa
- Robert Gray, English Bishop of Bristol
- Robert Gray, American merchant sea captain who pioneered the maritime fur trade
- Robert H. Gray, American data analyst, author and astronomer
- Roparz Hemon (Robert Hemon), Breton author and scholar of Breton expression
- Robert Henri, American painter and teacher
- Robert Hichens, British sailor who was part of the deck crew on board the RMS Titanic as one of six quartermasters on board the vessel and was at the ships wheel when it struck the iceberg
- Carl Robert Jakobson, Estonian writer, politician and teacher, one of the most important people in the Estonian national awakening
- Robert J. Kirby, 45th commandant of Sing Sing prison
- Robert Knox, Irish bishop
- Robert Lopez, award-winning American songwriter of musicals, best known for co-creating The Book of Mormon and Avenue Q, and for composing the songs featured in the 3D Disney computer animated films Frozen and Coco
- Roberto Matta, of Chilean painter and a seminal figure in 20th century abstract expressionist and surrealist art
- Robert Molyneux, English-American Catholic priest and Jesuit missionary to the United States
- Robert de Montesquiou, French aesthete, Symbolist poet and art collector
- Captain Robert Nairac, British Army officer in 14 Intelligence Company who was abducted from a pub in Dromintee, south County Armagh, during an undercover operation and assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on his fourth tour of duty in Northern Ireland as a Military Intelligence Liaison Officer
- Robert M. Price, American theologian and writer
- Robert O. Scholz, American architect from Washington, D.C.
- Robert Livingston Rudolph, American bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church
- Robert Stevens, British-born American photojournalist killed in the 2001 anthrax attacks
- Robert Scotland Liddell, British war reporter and photographer
- Robert Topala, also known as Zhenmuron, Swedish musician and video game developer known for developing the popular rhythm based arcade art game Geometry Dash
- Robert Barron (bishop), American prelate of the Catholic Church, author, theologian and evangelist, known for his Word on Fire ministry
- Robert Wadlow, known as the Alton Giant and the Giant of Illinois, an American who became famous as the tallest person in recorded history
- Robert Wipper, Russian historian of classical antiquity, medieval and modern period
Fictional characters
- Robert "Rocky" Balboa, the main character in Rocky Balboa film series;
- King Robert Baratheon, a fictional king in A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin & the 2011 TV series Game of Thrones (King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, Protector of the Realm, Lord of Storm's End, Lord Paramount of the Stormlands)
- Robert, main character of the 2021 action thriller Roberrt
- Robert Barone, a character from the 1996 sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond
- Robert Blake, main character in the story The Haunter of the Dark by H.P. Lovecraft
- Robert the Devil, main character of a legend of medieval origin about a Norman knight who discovers he is the son of Satan
- Robert "Yokai" Callaghan, a former robotics professor at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology and the main antagonist of Big Hero 6
- Robert Philip, one of the main characters in the 2007 film Enchanted
- Robert Drake, fictional superhero known as Iceman, appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics, a founding member of the X-Men
- Robert Ford, main character in TV series Westworld
- Robert "Rob" Smith, character from the TV series The Goldbergs
- Robert Langdon, symbologist and cryptologist in Dan Brown's novels Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol & Inferno, the 2006 film The Da Vinci Code & the 2009 film Angels & Demons
- Robert McGonagall, father of Minerva McGonagall, the transfiguration teacher and Head of Gryffindor House in the Harry Potter franchise;
- Robert "Bobby" Nash, a firefighter in TV series 9-1-1
- Robert Neville, a main protagonist and US Army Virologist in 2007 movie I Am Legend;
- Robert "Bob" Newby, a character from the TV series Stranger Things
- Robert Paulson, a character in Chuck Palahniuk's novel Fight Club and the 1999 film of the same name
- Robert "Bob" Fossil, a zoo owner in the TV series The Mighty Boosh
- Robert Reynolds, a Marvel Comics Superhero known as Sentry
- Robbie Rotten, the main villain in LazyTown since the second play, Glanni Glæpur í Latabæ (Robbie Rotten in LazyTown);
- Robert "Robbie" Shapiro, character from TV series Victorious
- Robert "Bobby" Singer, fictional character in The CW Television Network's horror-drama television series Supernatural
- Robert The Scotsman, character from animated series Samurai Jack
- Robert "Robb" Stark, a fictional character in A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin & the 2011 TV series Game of Thrones
- Robert Chan, chief executive of Umbrella Corps in Resident Evil franchise
- Robert "Bob" Kendo, a character from Resident Evil franchise
- Robert, character from the Lithuanian soap opera Moterys meluoja geriau (Women lie better) and its Latvian version Viņas melo labāk
- Robert T. Sturgeon, video game character in the Ninja Gaiden series
- Robert "Bob" Gray, real name of the character known as It or Pennywise the Dancing Clown from the horror story and movies of the same name
- Sponge Robert "Bob" SquarePants, title character of the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants
- Robert "Bob" the Builder, a character from the British animated series Bob the Builder
- Robert Seaver, a character from Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey
- Robert Bruce Banner, a major character featured in Marvel Comics, known as The Incredible Hulk
- Dr Robert Gru, character from the Despicable Me franchise
- Robert "Bob" Parr, a fictional superhero known as Mr Incredible from The Incredibles franchise
- Robert Underdunk Terwilliger, known as Sideshow Bob, a character from the animated series The Simpsons
Folklore
- Robert Goodfellow, domestic and nature sprite, demon, or fairy in mythology
- Knight Robert, a legendary Christmas character from German folklore
- Robert, one of the names often used to refer to a legendary Christmas character known as Krampus
- Robert, one of the names often used to refer to the Devil in mythology
In different languages
Indo-European
Germanic
- Major
- Afrikaans: Robert
- Austrian-Bavarian: Rupert, Ruprecht, Rupprecht
- Danish: Robert
- Dutch: Robrecht, Robbert
- English: Robert
- German: Rupert, Ruprecht, Rupprecht
- Flemish: Robbert
- Frisian: Robert
- Icelandic: Róbert
- Norwegian: Robert
- Scots: Rabert
- Swedish: Robert
- Yiddish: ראבערט (Rabert)
- Others
- Dalecarlian: Robert
- Elfdalian (Övdalian): Rodbert
- Gothic: Hroþobrecht
- Finland Swedish: Robert
- Frankish: Chrodobert, Chrodobrecht
- Limburgish: Robbert
- Luxembourgish: Robbert
- Vandalic: Chrodobert, Chrodobrecht
- Yenish: Rupert
- Old Norse: Hrōðberχtr
- Proto-Germanic: Hrōþiberhtaz
- Proto-Norse: Hrōðberχtr
Balto-Slavic
Baltic
- Major
- Latvian (Lettish): Roberts, Robērs
- Lithuanian: Robertas
- Other
- Latgalian: Roberts
- Old Prussian: Robertis
- Samogitian: Robertas
Slavic
- Major
- Belorussian: Роберт (Robert)
- Bosnian: Robert, Роберт
- Bulgarian: Робърт/Роберт (Robert)
- Croatian: Robert
- Czech: Robert
- Macedonian: Роберт (Robert)
- Polish: Robert
- Russian: Роберт (Robert), Роман (Roman)
- Serbian: Robert/Роберт
- Slovak: Róbert
- Slovene: Roberto
- Others
- Church Slavonic: Роберт (Robert)
- Kashubian: Robert
- Old Church Slavonic: Роберт (Robert)
- Rusyn: Роберт (Robert)
Celtic
- Major
- Irish: Roibeárd
- Welsh: Robat, Rhobert
- Others
- Breton: Roparzh, Roperzh, Roparz, Ropars
- Celtiberian: Hraidbeardaz
- Cornish: Robert
- Gaulish: Raibeard[citation needed]
- Manx: Robard
- Scottish Gaelic: Raibeart
Hellenic
- Ancient Macedonian: Ροβέρτος (Rovértos)
- Greek: Ροβέρτος (Rovértos)
- Pontic Greek: Ροβέρτος (Rovértos)
Italic
- Latin: Robertus, Rupertus
- Classical Latin: Robertus, Rupertus, Rodbertus
- Late Latin: Robertus, Rupertus
- Oscan: Robertus
- Umbrian: Robertus
- Vulgar Latin: Robertus, Rupertus
Romance
- Major
- Catalan: Robert
- French: Robert
- Italian: Roberto
- Portuguese: Roberto
- Romanian: Robert
- Spanish: Roberto
- Others
- Aragonese: Roberto
- Aromanian (Vlach): Robert
- Asturian: Robert
- Asturleonese: Roberto
- Champenois: Robert
- Corsican: Roberto
- Dalmatian: Roberto
- Emilian: Robert
- Franco-Provençal: Robert
- Friulian: Robèrto
- Galician: Roberte
- Gallo: Robert, Roberte
- Galician-Portuguese: Roberteo
- Istriot: Robert
- Ladino: רוברטו (Roberto)
- Ligurian: Roberto
- Lombard: Roberto
- Neapolitan: Roberto
- Occitan: Robert
- Picard: Robert
- Piedmontese: Robert
- Sardinian: Robertu
- Venetian: Roberto
- Walloon: Robert
Indo-Iranian
- Balochi: رابرت (Robert)
- Bengali: রবার্ট (Rabārṭa)
- Gujarati: રોબર્ટ (Rōbarṭa)
- Hindi: रॉबर्ट (Robart)
- Kashmiri: रॉबर्ट (Robart)
- Kurdish: رابرت (Robert)
- Malvi: रॉबर्ट (Robart)
- Marathi: रॉबर्ट (Rŏbarṭa)
- Mazanderani: رابرت (Robert)
- Nepali: रोबर्ट (Rōbarṭa)
- Nimadi: रॉबर्ट (Robart)
- Odia: ରବର୍ଟ (Robert)
- Ossetian (Ossetic): Роберт
- Pashto: رابرټ (Robert)
- Persian: رابرت (Robert)
- Punjabi: ਰਾਬਰਟ (Rābaraṭa)
- Romani: Robert
- Sanskrit: रॉबर्ट (Robart)
- Tajik: Роберт
- Urdu: رابرٹ (Robert)
Other
- Albanian: Robert
- Armenian: Ռոբերտ (Robert), Ռուբեն (Ruben), Ռուպեն (Rupen, Roupen)
- Dacian: Ροβέρτος (Rovértos)
- Esperanto: Robert, Roberto
- Hittite: