Roberta
Masculine · “bright fame”
Roberta is given to girls far more often — 171,548 girls against 782 boys since 1880. See Roberta as a girl name
Roberta is the feminine of one of the great Germanic names, and it is recorded here for boys as well as girls. For one stretch of the last century it was also the title of a Broadway show that produced a song almost everybody can hum.
How old is the name Roberta?
Roberta first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Roberta alive today was born around 1944, making them about 81 years old. About 400 people named Roberta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Roberta most popular?
Roberta peaked in 1943, reaching #1486 nationally. See the whole 1943 chart.
Where it comes from
From Hrodebert to Roberta
The story of Roberta
A musical opened in New York in the early nineteen-thirties about an American football player who inherits a Paris dress shop, and it was called Roberta. The plot has not aged well and nobody revives it. What came out of it was a song, written for the show almost as an afterthought and slowed down at the last minute, which became one of the most recorded pieces of the century and is still being covered. The show also went straight into a film with Astaire and Rogers, which is how the title reached every radio and cinema in the country. A name attached to a hit like that moves, and this one did, in exactly the years the show was running.
Meaning
bright fame
Robert joins two Germanic elements, one meaning fame and one meaning bright, and the reading is settled. Roberta is the Latin-style feminine built on it, which English had to borrow because it has no way of making one itself.
How the name formed
- Hrodebert
- Robert
- Roberta
Related forms: Roberta · Roberta · Roberte
Pronouncing Roberta
ruh-BUR-tuh
Three syllables with the weight in the middle. In Italian and Spanish the first vowel is clearer and the r is rolled.
Nicknames for Roberta
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1914
- Most boys named
- 194322 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1486reached in 1943
- Change vs 1988
- +28.6%9 in 1990, from 7
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Roberta in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Roberta in Italian — same name
- Roberta in Spanish — same name
- Roberte in French — same name
Robertas among us
people named Roberta are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Roberta sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and documented, and the name behind it is one of the oldest in continuous European use.
- It offers three established short forms, all of them ordinary names.
- It works in English, Spanish and Italian households without any adjustment.
- In America it reads as belonging to an older generation, which is either the appeal or the obstacle.
- This spelling goes overwhelmingly to girls but is recorded for boys as well, so a form will occasionally guess wrong.
- The short forms are shared with a great many other names, so a Bobbie is rarely the only one in a room.
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What they receive
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Roberta
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Robertas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Roberta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Roberta in 2025?
- Roberta is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Roberta with classmates?
- Roberta will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More R names
The most-given names starting with R, all years combined.
Robert#92 · Richard#234 · Ronald#637 · Ryan#99 · Raymond#394 · Roger#832 · Ralph#1046 · Roy#525
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Roberta? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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