Rupert

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A masculine first name of Germanic origin, borne by a number of notable people across European history
2. A traditional male forename, often associated with British royalty and the famous storybook bear
3. A personal name given to boys, derived from an old Germanic word meaning bright fame

Etymology: Prince Rupert of the Rhine, a German-born nephew of King Charles I, brought the name "Rupert" to England in the seventeenth century, when he became one of the most prominent cavalry commanders of the English Civil War. Before that, the name was a German one, and English speakers had long used "Robert" for the same underlying name. The two are doublets: separate forms of one Germanic name, "Hrodebert" or similar, that entered English by different routes and ended up as distinct English names. The name carries a second, unexpected legacy in mathematics. Prince Rupert posed a question about whether a cube could be passed through a hole cut in another cube of the same size, without the second cube breaking apart. The problem became known as Prince Rupert's cube, and the name is still used for it in geometry.