Mairlyn's Photos - Feb 4 2026 - Billy Bob vs Bilbo

 

Billy Bob. This is a common, informal American male name that symbolizes a “good ol’ boy” archetype.   William Robert seems have the opposite effect - stilted, formal and associated with royal and noble lineages - makes one think of Britain. I wondered if Bilbo - the name of the protagonist in The Hobbit - was a shortened version of Bill and Bob (William and Robert).  That isn’t the case.  It is a “fantasy” name. Articles give reference to the Spanish word bilbo which is a type of rapier/sword from Bilbao, and to the Old English word bil means sword or tool. We can go to the source: Tolkien stated the name was of unknown meaning and that these were names based on sound symbolism and invented languages. I looked at a family tree of the Bagginses of Hobbiton and most of the names are fantasy names to me: Berylla, Mungo, Fastolph, Bungo, Belba, Rudigar, Longo, Otho, Lotho, and so on.  There is quite a study of the names in this academic paper HERE.   I include the link as it is so seldom now that I actually retrieve research papers on a topic. The paper is very interesting and explains the aspect of sound symbolism:  “…high front vowels indicating light (gleam, glimmer, glitter) and back vowels indicating darkness (gloom).”  I would expect that there are papers on the Hobit names and what they evoke in sound symbolism. And then we return to Billy Bob. This too seems to have sound symbolism.  The name gives the sense of rustic, unsophisticated, rural, and uneducated. So there we are with Billy Bob Thornton, accomplished actor, singer, songwriter, born William Robert Thornton, and as an actor using a rustic first name(s).  What a different presence would have been given by WIlliam Robert Thornton. But Billy Bob makes more sense when one looks at his biography. His father’s name was Billy Ray, according to Wikipedia, and he grew up in a shack in Arkansas with no electricity or plumbing. Take that along with the characters he has portrayed, and there’s some logic to it. No fantasy name there. I wonder when we will figure out Dolphin language.  There’s a job that would keep AI busy for a while.

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