Theobald

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Boy · Germanic, through Norman French

Theobald

Say it: THEE-oh-bawld

Try it with your surname

Meaning

From Germanic theud 'people' and bald 'bold'.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

Brave

Shakespeare's Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet takes his name from it.

Its wave through time

Rare in the records

In the United States

024618801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1916per million babies of that sex
  • 10 babies given this name since 1916
  • At its height in 1916, about 1 in 178,000 boys
  • Fewer than 5 babies a year in 2020

Through the ages

  1. The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
  2. The Renaissance1400 to 1600

Used by

EnglishFrenchGerman

The family of the name

Other spellings: Tybalt, Tibald, Tebald

GermanTheobald
FrenchThibault
ItalianTebaldo
SpanishTeobaldo
FrenchThibaut

Famous bearers

  • Theobald of Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury
  • Theobald Wolfe Tone, Irish revolutionary

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • Royal and noble genealogies
  • Well-known works of literature
  • The Domesday Book (1086) source
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.