Bob

It's always about Bob.

"What About Bob?"

For me, the journey into considering who "Bob" is started with an amazingly funny movie ...

Then, there's the black cat in Luck, Bob.

I've come to learn that it's all about Bob.

Some more "Bobs" ...

• Bob the Builder
• B.O.B., the gelatinous, brainless blob in Monsters vs. Aliens
• Bob Chatchit, from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
• Planet Bob, also known as New Earth, in the film Titan A.E.
• Sideshow Bob, a recurring character on The Simpsons
• Bob, from the spinoff of Despicable Me known as Minions

Work

At my company, I got an email about an HR system called HiBob. I deleted the email immediately since it was clearly a scam.

Then HR told us about a cool new system.

This Journey

I was just starting to think about the name, Bob, what I came across Existential Crisis Bob.

Someone asked me the same day, "Why is Bob a shortened form of Robert?"

Can you believe that this had never occurred to me?

My Beginning

I was born, Robert.

Most of by childhood, I was called Bobby (today, only my sister calls me that).

Then, I met a girl named Bobbie and thought that Bobby was a bit childish and started going by Bob.

Learning About Bob

Then, I wanted to learn about why Bob is a shortened version of Robert ... it does seem strange.

From Wikipedia: HERE

Bob is a male given name or a diminutive form of a persons name, usually of Robert, and sometimes a diminutive of Bobby. It is most common in English-speaking countries such as the United States, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand and some Anglophone African countries.

It most likely originated from the diminutive Rob, short for Robert. Rhyming names were popular in the Middle Ages, so Richard became Rick, Hick, or Dick, William became Will, Gill, or Bill, and Robert became Rob, Hob, Dob, Nob, or Bob.

It can also be used as a nickname for the name Vladimir, since a commonly used nickname for Vladimir is Vova which in Cyrillic script (Вова) resembles the name Bob in Latin script; historically, both names (Robert and Vladimir) share the same meaning (bright fame).