Bob

See also: bob, BOB, bób, and böb

English

Etymology

Probably from a medieval hypocorism of Rob.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: bŏb, IPA^(key): /bɒb/
• Rhymes: -ɒb
• (US) enPR: bäb, bôb, IPA^(key): /bɑb/, /bɔb/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Proper noun

Bob (plural Bobs)

1. A diminutive of the male given name Robert.
   • 2005 March 30, “Miramax founders leave Disney”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Miramax Films cofounders Bob and Harvey Weinstein will end their successful, but often tumultuous, 12-year relationship with The Walt Disney Company to launch their own media company.

   • 2009 April 25, “Meet Number 16 Bus Shelter”, in Austin Daily Herald‎^[2], archived from the original on 20 July 2025:

     For the last decade at least, the trend seems to be that more untraditional names are being chosen over the Bobs, the Toms, the Sues and the Marys.

2. (cryptography, physics) The person or system receiving a message or signal from a source conventionally known as Alice.

   Synonym: Party B

   Coordinate terms: Alice, Eve, Mallory, Peggy, Victor

   • 2003, Matt Bishop, Computer Security: Art and Science, Addison-Wesley Professional, →ISBN, page 247:

     The key that Alice and Bob are to share cannot be transmitted in the clear. Either it must be enciphered when sent, or Alice and Bob must derive it without an exhange of data from which the key can be derived.

Derived terms

• Baghdad Bob
• Bob Hope
• Bobs Creek
• Bobs Farm
• Fighting Bob

Related terms

• Bobby
• Dobbin
• Rob
• Robbie

Translations

diminutive of Robert

• Albanian: Bob
• Amharic: ቦብ (bob)
• Arabic: بُوب (bōb)
• Armenian: Բոբ (Bob)
• Azerbaijani: Bob
• Bengali: বব (bn) (bobo)
• Bulgarian: Боб m (Bob)
• Catalan: Bob (ca)
• Cherokee: ᏆᏆ (quaqua)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 巴布 (baa¹ bou³)

  Mandarin: 鮑勃 / 鲍勃 (Bàobó), 巴布 (Bābù)

• Czech: Bob (cs)
• Danish: Bob
• Dutch: Bob (nl)
• Esperanto: Robĉjo
• French: Bob (fr)
• Georgian: ბობ (bob)
• German: Bob (de)
• Greek: Μπομπ (el) (Bomp)
• Hebrew: בוֹב (bob)
• Hindi: बॉब (bŏb)
• Hungarian: Bob (hu)
• Irish: Bob
• Italian: Bob
• Japanese: ボブ (ja) (bobu)
• Korean: 밥 (ko) (Bap)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: بۆب (ckb) (bob)

• Latvian: Bobs
• Lithuanian: Bobas m
• Macedonian: Боб (Bob)
• Malayalam: ബോബ് (bōbŭ)
• Mongolian: Боб (Bob)
• Norwegian: Bob (no)
• Persian: باب (fa) (bâb)
• Portuguese: Beto m, Bob
• Romanian: Bob m
• Russian: Боб (ru) m (Bob)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Боб m

  Latin: Bob m

• Sinhalese: බොබ් (si) (bob)
• Slovak: Bob
• Spanish: Beto (es) m, Bob (es)
• Swedish: Bob (sv)
• Tagalog: Bob
• Thai: บ็อบ (bɔ̀p)
• Turkish: Bob (tr)
• Ukrainian: Боб (Bob)
• Uzbek: Bob
• Vietnamese: Bob
• Welsh: Bob m

person or system receiving a message

• Finnish: Bob (fi)
• Portuguese: Bob m

Noun

Bob (plural Bobs)

1. A generic male person. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

It's so simple, even Bob from accounting could do it.

Synonyms

• Jack (generic male)
• Joe (generic male)

Derived terms

• Bob's your uncle

See also

• Alice

Further reading

• Alice and Bob on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• obb

Dutch

Alternative forms

• BOB, bob

Etymology

Borrowed from English Bob.

First used to mean "dedicated driver" in 1995 campaigns by Belgisch Instituut voor de Verkeersveiligheid ("Belgian Road Safety Institute") and since 2001 also in the Netherlands. Although it was explicitly intended to be a placeholder name, it is often spelled as "BOB" or "bob" as a result of a common folk etymology interpreting it as an abbreviation for bewust onbeschonken bestuurder "deliberately unintoxicated driver".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɔp/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Bob
• Rhymes: -ɔp

Proper noun

Bob m

1. a male given name, Bob
2. designated driver

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɔb/

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔb

Proper noun

Bob m

1. a male given name from English

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɔp/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔp

Proper noun

Bob m (proper noun, strong, genitive Bobs or (with an article) Bob)

1. a male given name from English

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbob/
• Rhymes: -ob

Proper noun

Bob m

1. a male given name from English

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈbob/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈbob/ [ˈboβ]

• Rhymes: -ob, -oβ

Proper noun

Bob m

1. (cryptography) Bob (person or system receiving a message)
2. a male given name from English

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbob/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ob

Etymology 1

From bob.

Proper noun

Bob m (genitive/dative lui Bob)

1. a surname

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English Bob.

Proper noun

Bob m (genitive/dative lui Bob)

1. a male given name from English

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbob/ [ˈboβ̞]
• Rhymes: -ob
• Syllabification: Bob

Proper noun

Bob m

1. a male given name from English

Turkish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bop/
• Rhymes: -op

Proper noun

Bob

1. a male given name from English

Uzbek

Other scripts

Arabic (Yangi Imlo)	باب
Cyrillic	Боб‍
Latin	Bob‍
Afghan Uzbek	باب (bob)

Proper noun

Bob

1. the Báb

Derived terms

• bobiy
• bobiylik