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Summary
- Robin is not in the Bible, and neither is the bird. Robins are European and North American; Scripture’s birds belong to the hill country and the wilderness.
- Robin began as a pet form of Robert — Germanic, “bright fame” — with the French diminutive ending -in.
- The bird was named after the human name. The English redbreast was nicknamed robin the way a magpie was called Mag, and the redbreast eventually dropped off.
- Scripture is full of nicknames that became names: Simon to Peter (John 1:42), James and John as Boanerges (Mark 3:17), Thomas as Didymus, Joseph of Cyprus as Barnabas (Acts 4:36).
- Its birds are small, common and provided for — the sparrow worth half a penny (Matthew 10:29) and the raven that fed Elijah (1 Kings 17:6).
Bibliography (Click to show)
Sources: Behind the Name entries for Robin and Robert; the naming of the English redbreast after the personal name Robin, alongside Mag for magpie and Jack for jackdaw, is standard in histories of English bird names. Scripture quotations from the NIV via BibleGateway (John 1:42; Mark 3:17; Acts 4:36; Matthew 10:29; Luke 12:6, 24; 1 Kings 17:6).
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