Bodo (given name)

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 root beud- "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
Bodo VII, Count of Stolberg-Wernigerode (1375–1455), German count
Bodo III, Count of Stolberg-Wernigerode (1467–1538), German count

Modern era

Bodo Abel (born 1948), German professor
Bodo Andreass (born 1955), German boxing coach
Bodo Battenberg (born 1963), German equestrian
Bodo Baumgarten (1940–2022), German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and educator
Bodo Bischoff (born 1952), German musicologist and choral conductor
Bodo Bittner (1940–2012), West German bobsledder
Bodo Bockenauer (born 1940), German former figure skater
Bodo Dettke (born 1967), Solomon Islands politician
Bodo Ebhardt (1865–1945), German architect, architectural historian, and castle explorer
Bodo Ferl (born 1959), East German retired bobsledder
Bodo Hauser (1946–2004), German journalist and writer
Bodo Hell (born 1943), Austrian writer
Bodo von Hodenberg (1604–1650), German regional administrator and poet
Bodo Hombach (born 1952), German politician
Bodo Igesz (1935–2014), Dutch stage director
Bodo Illgner (born 1967), German former football goalkeeper
Bodo Kirchhoff (born 1948), German writer and novelist
Bodo Klimpel (born 1963), German politician
Bodo Kox (born 1977), Polish film director, actor, and screenwriter
Bodo Kuhn (born 1967), German sprinter
Bodo Lafferentz (1897–1974), German Nazi member and high-ranking SS officer
Bodo Linnhoff (born 1948), chemical engineer and academic
Bodo Lukowski (born 1961), German wrestler
Bodo Otto (1711–1787), German-born American physician
Bodo Ramelow (born 1956), German politician
Bodo Rudwaleit (born 1957), German former football goalkeeper
Bodo Sandberg (1914–2005), Dutch military pilot
Bodo Schäfer (born 1960), German author and public speaker
Bodo Schiffmann [de] (born 1968), German doctor and conspiracy activist
Bodo Schlegelmilch, business educator, academic, and marketing theorist
Bodo Schmidt (born 1967), German football coach and former player
Bodo Sieber (born 1979), German former international rugby union player
Bodo Sperlein, German product designer and brand consultant
Bodo Sperling (born 1952), German artist, painter, and inventor
Bodo Spranz (1920–2007), German researcher, director, and ethnologist
Bodo Thyssen (1918–2004), German industrialist and medical doctor
Bodo Tümmler (born 1943), German former middle distance runner
Bodo Uhse (1904–1963), German writer, journalist, and political activist
Bodo von Borries (1905–1956), German physicist
Bodo von Dewitz (1950–2017), German art historian
Bodo Zimmermann (1886–1963), German general

Botho

Botho Elster (1894–1952), German major general in World War II
Botho Graef (1857–1917), German classical archaeologist and art historian
Botho Hoefer (1880–1958), German art director
Botho Makubate (born 1990), Botswana female badminton player
Botho Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein (1927–2008), German politician
Botho Sigwart zu Eulenburg (1884–1915), German composer
Botho Strauss (born 1944), German playwright, novelist, and essayist
Botho von Hülsen (1815–1886), German theater manager
Botho von Wedel (1862–1943), German nobleman and a diplomat
Botho zu Eulenburg (1831–1912), Prussian statesman

References

^ ^a ^b Förstemann, Altdeutsches Namenbuch s.v. BUD
^ BOD (nordicnames.de), citing Wilfried Seibicke, Historisches Deutsches Vornamenbuch.
^ J. Insley, "Portesmutha" in: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde vol. 23, Walter de Gruyter (2003), 291.

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[BUD-1] Förstemann, Altdeutsches Namenbuch s.v. BUD

[2] BOD (nordicnames.de), citing Wilfried Seibicke, Historisches Deutsches Vornamenbuch.

[3] J. Insley, "Portesmutha" in: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde vol. 23, Walter de Gruyter (2003), 291.

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