Name profile

Humbert

This name is derived from the Old German elements hun "bear cub" and beraht "bright".

PronunciationFrench /œ̃.bɛʁ/; German /ˈhʊm.bɛʁt/; American English /ˈhʌm.bəɹt/; British English /ˈhʌm.bət/
Usage languagesEnglish, French, German, Germanic

Meaning and history

Humbert is derived from the Old German elements hun, meaning “bear cub,” and beraht, meaning “bright.” The Normans brought the name to England, where it has remained uncommon. It was borne by a 7th-century Frankish saint who founded Maroilles Abbey, by two kings of Italy known in Italian as Umberto and ruling in the 19th and 20th centuries, and by the fictional Humbert Humbert in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (1955).