# Hob? Hob? really as a nickname? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 23, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743 "2010-07-23T17:43:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hakuna\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hakuna\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hakuna_Matata)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743/1 "2010-07-23T17:43:01Z")
We have a new guy at the office and his name is Bert, and we were wondering if it was short for anything, so I googled it and it is a nickname for Robert, I can accept that. But the wiki article said this : A nickname (also spelled “nick name”) is a descriptive name given in place of or in addition to the official name of a person, place or thing. It can also be the familiar or truncated form of the proper name,[1] which may sometimes be used simply for convenience (e.g. “Bobby”, “Bob”, “Rob”, “Hob”, or “Bert” for the name Robert). Hob? I have never EVER met anyone name Hob–has anyone here? Is that really a nickname for Robert? Wow, learn something new everday. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743/2 "2010-07-23T17:57:05Z")
The nickname isn’t used in the US, but may still be used in the UK. [Hob Gadling](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hob_Gadling) is still alive, as far as I know. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743/3 "2010-07-23T18:06:55Z")
[Here’s one opinion](http://www.surnameweb.org/Hob/surname-origin.htm), and I have no idea whether any of that info is credible. ETA: And, yeah, I’ve never heard it used, either. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743/4 "2010-07-23T21:36:05Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The nickname isn’t used in the US Sure it is. Here is [one example](http://congress.org/congressorg/bio/id/5208). ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743/5 "2010-07-23T21:46:34Z")
Maybe his son chose it. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743/6 "2010-07-23T21:56:28Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The nickname isn’t used in the US, but may still be used in the UK. [Hob Gadling](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hob_Gadling) is still alive, as far as I know. Exactly my thought on reading the title. Nicely done, Speedy. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743/7 "2010-07-24T16:28:32Z")
Nicknames derived by swapping the initial consonant sound for an H were fairly common in medieval England – thus, “Robert” becomes “Hob” and “Richard” becomes “Hick.” Chaucer’s Cook, for example, is called “Hodge of Ware,” “Hodge” being a nickname for Roger. Obviously, the practice has fallen out of use, but it’s not inherently any weirder than the many consonant-swapping nicknames that are still in use – Bob, Bill, Dick, Ted, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743/8 "2010-07-26T16:09:21Z")
There are lots of interesting nicknames out there… My husband’s great uncle is Nub, short for Norbert. And no, it didn’t come as a result of someone mispronouncing it. His parents have called him that since birth, from what I learned this past weekend at the family reunion. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743/9 "2010-07-26T17:20:24Z")
I have a great uncle Bud who was born in '25 or '26. I didn’t know until last year that his name was Adolph and that as Hitler came into being the most famous asshole the world has ever known he quickly became Bud and never went by his legal name again. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743/10 "2010-07-26T17:26:03Z")
Makes more sense to me than “Chuck.” ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743/11 "2010-07-26T17:31:53Z")
Hobart? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743/12 "2010-07-26T17:59:04Z")
I used to work at a place that had a Hobert. I never did learn if the name was a variant of Robert or if there were others in his ancestry also named Hobert. He did _not_ go by any nicknames, though. So Hob is a new one on me. Robert Culp (recently deceased) played Hobie Gilman on an old 50’s show called _Trackdown_. When he and Bill Cosby were in _I Spy_ a few years later, some of their inside jokes included Cosby calling Culp “Hobie” at times, but there may have been a “Hob” (with a long o) as well. I can’t vouch for that but it’s a wrinlkle to consider. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743/13 "2010-07-26T18:06:37Z")
I have an estranged Aunt Hob, born in America. This is some sort of dimunitive of a female Japanese name. I’ll ask my relatives what it really is the next time I see them. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743/14 "2010-07-26T18:17:08Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > I used to work at a place that had a Hobert. I never did learn if the name was a variant of Robert or if there were others in his ancestry also named Hobert. > > He did _not_ go by any nicknames, though. So Hob is a new one on me. > > Robert Culp (recently deceased) played Hobie Gilman on an old 50’s show called _Trackdown_. When he and Bill Cosby were in _I Spy_ a few years later, some of their inside jokes included Cosby calling Culp “Hobie” at times, but there may have been a “Hob” (with a long o) as well. I can’t vouch for that but it’s a wrinlkle to consider. I tried to get back to this before the edit window expired to say that it was “Hoby” and not “Hobie” that Culp played on Trackdown. Not that it matters. Also, wrinlkle is a spelling error. I meant to spell it “alternative.” ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743/15 "2010-07-26T20:00:23Z")
Two of Tolkien’s hobbits were named Hob; Hob “Old Gammidgy” Gammidge and Hob Hayward. There was also Hobson “Roper” Gamgee. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743/16 "2010-07-26T23:04:36Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > I have a great uncle Bud who was born in '25 or '26. I didn’t know until last year that his name was Adolph and that as Hitler came into being the most famous asshole the world has ever known he quickly became Bud and never went by his legal name again. Apropos of nothing, I used to work with a chap who went by the name “Buddy”, a slightly odd name for a then 60-something year old man. Apparently this wasn’t his actual given name (which was something fairly normal like John or Robert) but was the name he’d gone by since he was a young kid. Back then, during WWII, his family lived near a military camp that was used for US soldiers on R&R from the Pacific Theater. He saw the servicemen often on the beach and around the area and they dubbed him “buddy” – a common enough US nickname for a little kid, but one that wasn’t common in NZ at the time. The name stuck and that was what he was known as at school, and even nearly 60 years later at work. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743/17 "2010-07-27T00:25:55Z")
My Father’s name was Horace but he went by Hob his whole life. I found out his real name when I saw it on his tombstone. ---
**Author:** ![Hakuna\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hakuna\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hakuna_Matata)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743/18 "2010-07-27T19:44:45Z")
Well I have heard of Hob as a name, but I never knew it was a nickname from Robert. The explanation given makes sense but I had just never heard of it. Sort of like Peggy as a nickname for Margaret. I am sure there is a explanation (I am too lazy to look it up!) but it doesn’t logically follow that Peggy comes from Margaret, just like Hob doesn’t logically come from Robert. Rob I get, Bert I get, Robby I get, But then Bob makes as much sense I suppose as Hob right? Ah well, you learn something new everyday. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hob-hob-really-as-a-nickname/547743/19 "2010-07-28T19:13:00Z")
As much sense as Paco for Francisco.