Given name & surname · also Old English
Cuthbert
“one who is bright and famous”
Cuthbert is used as a given name and a surname. One English interpretation is “one who is bright and famous.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One English interpretation is “one who is bright and famous.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Old English.
How it developed
Its Old English formation brings together cūð (“known”) and beorht (“bright, famous”).
The story
The name’s historical associations include two pre-Conquest English saints: a 7th-century bishop of Lindisfarne and an 8th-century archbishop of Canterbury.
Cuthbert through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 151
- 151 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1930
- 13 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 6 in 1955. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 13 in 1930. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 332 as a first name in 2020; 2,494 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Cuthbert’s family of names
Cuthbert has an affectionate form in Cuddy. Cuthbert shares a linguistic root with Cuithbeart. Cuthbert has a related form in Cuthbeorht.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 5
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 5
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Cuthbert
- Cuthbert7th-century Anglo-Saxon bishop, monk, hermit and saint (635–687)
- Cuthbert SebastianBritish Colonial governor (1921-2017)
- Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron CollingwoodRoyal Navy admiral (1748-1810)
- Cuthbert TunstallEnglish bishop, administrator and royal advisor1474–1559
- Cuthbert OttawayEnglish sportsman (1850–1878)
- Cuthbert VictorUnited States Virgin Islands basketball player (born 1983)
- Cuthbert BurnupEnglish footballer (1875–1960)
- Cuthbert GrantMétis leader (1793-1854)
- Cuthbert MalajilaZimbabwean footballerborn 1985
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Cuthbert, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Delbert
“one who is noble; a bright man”
>99% boys
Gilbert
“servant of St BRIDGET” · “of the bright promise”
>99% boys
Rupert
“one who is bright with fame”
>99% boys
Garner
“one who gathers or keeps grain”
83% boys · 17% girls
Bud
“one who is brotherly”
>99% boys
Sherwood
“from the bright forest”
>99% boys
Delton
“from the town in the valley”
>99% boys
Caldwell
“of the cold well” · “from the cold spring”
>99% boys