Humberto

Humberto is the Spanish equivalent of Humbert which is a name of Frankish (French) origins. Humbert is derived from the Germanic elements “hun” meaning “bear-cub, warrior” and “berht” meaning “bright, famous”. The Norman-French brought the name to England after the Norman Conquest of 1066 but it was never widely adopted among English-speakers. Rather this name was more largely embraced by continental Europeans such as the Spanish in the form of Humberto and the Italians in the form of Umberto (including two kings of Italy). It’s just not popular with Americans and here’s why. Humbert Humbert was famously used as the name of the narrator in Russian author Vladimir Nabokov’s controversially erotic novel “Lolita” (published in the U.S. in 1958). As a result of “Lolita”’s success Humbert is unfortunately oft associated with a dirty old man obsessed with the 11-year-old Lolita (Dolores). The good news is that the Spanish Humberto is pronounced quite a bit differently than Humbert so it doesn’t conjure up this rather unpleasant pedophiliac character created by Nabokov more than 50 years ago.