Colbert (name)

Colbert is an Irish, English, and French surname and given name of uncertain etymology. It is possible that it appeared independently several times throughout history. The name is recorded in England in the 11th century Domesday Book in Devon, Cheshire, and Lincolnshire.[1] This English surname was originally a given name that may have meant "cool" and "bright", see also Bert.[2]

The name is common in English-speaking countries, particularly Ireland, but some of these families may have their origin in France, where the name is very common, and may perhaps be descendants of Huguenot refugees.

The French name perhaps has a different origin, but some linguists say it has the same origin from the Germanic words kol ("cool") and berht ("bright").[3] It is recorded in the French province of Champagne in the 15th century, where, some suggest, it is a reduced form of "Colibert", which is also attested in medieval Champagne. "Colibert" was originally a contraction of the Latin collibertus ("fellow freedman", i.e. "fellow freed slave"). It may, however, derive from an unattested Germanic given name *Colberht or a gallicized form of the Flemish surname Koelbert. This in turn derives from a given name mentioned as Colobert in the 7th century.[4]

Jean-Baptiste Colbert, French minister of finances from 1665 to 1683 for King Louis XIV has traceable roots from France.