Colbert (name)

Colbert is generally accepted to be an Irish surname and given name of uncertain etymology. However, some scholars insist that Colbert is a French name, and there is minor evidence that the name originated in France. Celebrities like Stephen Colbert, however have clearly traceable roots from Ireland.

It is also recorded in Champagne in the 15th century, where, some suggest, it is a reduced form of "Colibert", which is also attested in medieval Champagne. "Colibert" was originally a contraction of the Latin collibertus ("freed slave, freedman"). It may, however, derive from an unattested Germanic given name *Colberht or a gallicized form of the Flemish surname Koelbert. This in turn derives from a given name mentioned as Colobert in the 7th century. It is possible that this name showed up separately in France, but more likely that it spread to Scotland, from Ireland and onto England, where it is recorded often in the medieval period. From there, it would have spread to Normandy and then to mainland France.

...
Wikipedia