Family name origins & meanings
- Catalan (Bobé) : respelling of Bover, occupational name for a herdsman, from Catalan bover ‘oxherd’, ‘cowherd’ (Late Latin bovarius).
- Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic) : from the Yiddish personal name bobe, babe, from a Slavic word meaning ‘old woman’ or ‘grandmother’. This was bestowed on girls in the hope that they would live a long life and grow old.