Robben
surname · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Robben is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the Netherlands than in any other country. In German, recorded as to creep, to crawl; to move on ground level, lying flatly on the stomach with the help of one's forearms or elbows.
- NLNetherlands1 in 7.8K(measured from records)
- BEBelgium1 in 24K
- USUnited States1 in 296K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Robben itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Netherlands (measured from records)
- Sources
- 79 (measured from records)
- 1 in 7.8K (inferred from the name graph)
2,214 people, 2007
Highest-authority source
Netherlands
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Roebben in BE Belgium, FR France.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
to creep, to crawl; to move on ground level, lying flatly on the stomach with the help of one's forearms or elbows
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.
How Robben is read(measured from records)
Robben is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- English67%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Robben in English.
- German13%
to creep, to crawl; to move on ground level, lying flatly on the stomach with the help of one's forearms or elbows
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
bb-Schreibung; nd. Verbreitung (475 Belege).
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 2: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen II, Konsonantismus
- Dutch8.2%
plural of rob
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Robben counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL Netherlands | 2,214 | 1 in 7.8K | 2.2K | Robben | 37 |
| US United States | 1,125 | 1 in 296K | 1.2K | Robben | 60 |
| BE Belgium | 487 | 1 in 24K | 487 | Roebben | 25 |
| FR France | ≈19 est. | ≈1 in 3.6M | — | Roebben | 35 |
| ES Spain | 16 | 1 in 3.1M | 16 | Robben | 3 |
| DK Denmark | 12 | 1 in 489K | 12 | — | — |
| NO Norway | 10 | 1 in 547K | 10 | — | — |
2,214 people counted by CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007), 2007. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007); Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register); INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Robben is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In enm, To steal, rob, or pilfer; to illegally or forcibly confiscate.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Cees Robbenb. 1909NLDutch artist (1909–1988)
- Romain Robbenb. 1943BEcyclist
- Antonius Robbenb. 1953NLDutch cultural anthropologist
- Bernhard Robbenb. 1955DEGerman translator, politician and author
- Frank Robbenb. 1961BEa Belgian computer scientist, civil servant, lecturer, and author
- Jens Robbenb. 1983DEGerman footballer
- Arjen Robbenb. 1984NLDutch association football player (born 1984)
- Jaap Robbenb. 1984NLDutch writer
- Jolanda Bombis-Robbenb. 1984NLDutch handball player
- Miranda Schmidt-Robbenb. 1986NLDutch handball player
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 27 sources across 15 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL Netherlands | CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007) | 2007 | 2.2K | #542 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 1.2K | #22,608 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 1.1K | #22,770 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 1.1K | #22,370 |
| BE Belgium | Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register) | 2008 | 487 | #3,124 |
| BE Belgium | Statbel — Noms de famille (family names) | — | 461 | #3,375 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 16 | #94,489 |
| DK Denmark | Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts) | — | 12 | #35,335 |
| NO Norway | SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population) | — | 10 | #55,580 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 2
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Robben mean, and where does it come from?
- to creep, to crawl; to move on ground level, lying flatly on the stomach with the help of one's forearms or elbows Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- In which country does Robben have the most bearers?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted about 2.2 thousand people named Robben, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled robben.
- Where is Robben most common?
- Robben is densest in the Netherlands, where the national register counts about 1 in 7.8 thousand people carrying it.
- How common is the name Robben?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted 2,214 people named Robben in 2007, about 1 in 7.8 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Robben?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/robbenThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 1,000 requests a day, and bulk access is licensed separately.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Robben”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.