(origin: Sax.) From Rod, counsel, and bert or bericht, bright or famous--famous in counsel.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

ROBERTS. ROBARTS. See Robert. The family of Roberts of Glassenbury, CO. Kent, extinct baronets, according to a genealogy in Harl. MSS., are descended from a William Rookherst, a Scotchman, who settled in Kent, in the third year of Henry I., and purchased lands at Goudhurst, which he called after his own name. This name he afterwards changed to Roobertes, which finally became Roberts. The tradition of descent from a Scotchman may be true or not, but that a North Briton gave name to a place in Kent called Rookherst, is a pure figment. The termination herst, or Jiurst, is scarcely, if at all, known in Scotland, while the Weald of Kent, where the Robertses first appear, abounds with it. The truth, doubtless, is, that the locality called from Saxon times Rooklierst, gave the name De Rookherst to its early possessors, and that one of them in later times — the son of a Robert — dropped his local surname, and assumed a patronymical one.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.