Bodo (variants Botho, Boto, Boddo, Potho, Boda, Puoto, etc.) is an
Old High German name, also adopted in Modern German. It is in origin a short name or
hypocorism for
Germanic names with a first element Bod-, Puot-, reflecting the
verbal rootbeud- "to bid, command".[1]
As a monothematic name, Old High German Boto, Old Saxon Bodo, could mean "lord, commander" or alternatively "messenger" (c.f. Old English bod "command; message", boda "messenger, angel").[2]
Full dithematic names with this first element (attested for the medieval period but not surviving into modern use) included Bodegisil, Bothad, Bodomar, Boderad, Poterich, Bodirid, Butwin, Potelfrid, Botolf, Podalolf, Bodenolf.[1]
The Anglo-Saxon cognate is Beda (West Saxon Bīeda, Northumbrian Bǣda, Anglian Bēda).[3]
Middle Ages
Bodo (deacon) (
c. 814 – 876), German deacon who converted to Judaism, assuming the name of Eleazar
^J. Insley, "Portesmutha" in: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde vol. 23, Walter de Gruyter (2003), 291.
Name list
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