Bodo (variants Botho, Boto, Boddo, Potho, Boda, Puoto, etc.) is an Old High German name, also adopted in Modern German. It is in origin a short name or hypocorism for Germanic names with a first element Bod-, Puot-, reflecting the verbal root beud- "to bid, command".[1] As a monothematic name, Old High German Boto, Old Saxon Bodo, could mean "lord, commander" or alternatively "messenger" (c.f. Old English bod "command; message", boda "messenger, angel").[2] Full dithematic names with this first element (attested for the medieval period but not surviving into modern use) included Bodegisil, Bothad, Bodomar, Boderad, Poterich, Bodirid, Butwin, Potelfrid, Botolf, Podalolf, Bodenolf.[1]
The Anglo-Saxon cognate is Beda (West Saxon Bīeda, Northumbrian Bǣda, Anglian Bēda).[3]
Middle Ages
- Bodo (deacon) (c. 814–876), German deacon who converted to Judaism, assuming the name of Eleazar
- Bodo VII, Count of Stolberg-Wernigerode (1375–1455), German count
- Bodo III, Count of Stolberg-Wernigerode (1467–1538), German count
Modern era
- Bodo Abel (born 1948), German professor
- Bodo Andreass (born 1955), German boxing coach
- Bodo Battenberg (born 1963), German equestrian
- Bodo Baumgarten (1940–2022), German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and educator
- Bodo Bischoff (born 1952), German musicologist and choral conductor
- Bodo Bittner (1940–2012), West German bobsledder
- Bodo Bockenauer (born 1940), German former figure skater
- Bodo Dettke (born 1967), Solomon Islands politician
- Bodo Ebhardt (1865–1945), German architect, architectural historian, and castle explorer
- Bodo Ferl (born 1959), East German retired bobsledder
- Bodo Hauser (1946–2004), German journalist and writer
- Bodo Hell (born 1943), Austrian writer
- Bodo von Hodenberg (1604–1650), German regional administrator and poet
- Bodo Hombach (born 1952), German politician
- Bodo Igesz (1935–2014), Dutch stage director
- Bodo Illgner (born 1967), German former football goalkeeper
- Bodo Kirchhoff (born 1948), German writer and novelist
- Bodo Klimpel (born 1963), German politician
- Bodo Kox (born 1977), Polish film director, actor, and screenwriter
- Bodo Kuhn (born 1967), German sprinter
- Bodo Lafferentz (1897–1974), German Nazi member and high-ranking SS officer
- Bodo Linnhoff (born 1948), chemical engineer and academic
- Bodo Lukowski (born 1961), German wrestler
- Bodo Otto (1711–1787), German-born American physician
- Bodo Ramelow (born 1956), German politician
- Bodo Rudwaleit (born 1957), German former football goalkeeper
- Bodo Sandberg (1914–2005), Dutch military pilot
- Bodo Schäfer (born 1960), German author and public speaker
- Bodo Schiffmann (born 1968), German doctor and conspiracy activist
- Bodo Schlegelmilch, business educator, academic, and marketing theorist
- Bodo Schmidt (born 1967), German football coach and former player
- Bodo Sieber (born 1979), German former international rugby union player
- Bodo Sperlein, German product designer and brand consultant
- Bodo Sperling (born 1952), German artist, painter, and inventor
- Bodo Spranz (1920–2007), German researcher, director, and ethnologist
- Bodo Thyssen (1918–2004), German industrialist and medical doctor
- Bodo Tümmler (born 1943), German former middle distance runner
- Bodo Uhse (1904–1963), German writer, journalist, and political activist
- Bodo von Borries (1905–1956), German physicist
- Bodo von Dewitz (1950–2017), German art historian
- Bodo Zimmermann (1886–1963), German general