*SET-U

English word origin

Etymology of Rambo

* The name "Rambo" is of unknown origin. It can be dated back to the 17th-century Swedish immigrant Peter Gunnarsson Rambo. According to folk legend it is derived from the mountain Ramberget ("Raven’s Hill") in Gothenbur

1 source sectionExtended source reportWiktionary original ↗
In this entry · 1 source sections

The source etymologies

Wiktionary via Kaikki / Wiktextract

The source reports below are imported and unreviewed by *SET-U. Separate numbered origins and differing source variants are preserved; agreement within this extraction is not independent corroboration.

Unnumbered source etymology

Original entry ↗
noun

One who is reckless, disregards orders, uses violence to solve all problems, and bravely charges headlong into the teeth of the enemy. · An American variety of apple with a greenish-yellow skin, mottled and striped with dull red.

name

A surname.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

* The name "Rambo" is of unknown origin. It can be dated back to the 17th-century Swedish immigrant Peter Gunnarsson Rambo. According to folk legend it is derived from the mountain Ramberget ("Raven’s Hill") in Gothenburg, whence the Swedish immigrants to Delaware originated in the 17th century. * "Rambo" is also the name of an old farm in Vestfold county, Norway ("Rambøe" 1664, "Ramboe" 1723) - and about 65 people in Norway have Rambo as a family name. The Old Norse form of the name might have been *Hrafnabú. The first element is then the genitive plurals of hrafn m. 'raven', and the last element is bú n. 'farm'. The name was brought to the US by Norwegian settlers. * "Rambo" became widely known after John Rambo, a fictional Vietnam War veteran and protagonist of the film series Rambo. See also Japanese 乱暴(らんぼー) (ranbō, “violence; violent; reckless; rude; rough; unreasonable”).

Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

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  "templates": [
    {
      "name": "ncog",
      "args": {
        "1": "ja",
        "2": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "Japanese"
    },
    {
      "name": "ja-r",
      "args": {
        "1": "乱暴",
        "2": "らんぼー",
        "t": "violence; violent; reckless; rude; rough; unreasonable"
      },
      "expansion": "乱暴(らんぼー) (ranbō, “violence; violent; reckless; rude; rough; unreasonable”)"
    }
  ],
  "links": [
    [
      "Old Norse",
      "Old Norse"
    ],
    [
      "hrafn",
      "hrafn"
    ],
    [
      "bú",
      "bú"
    ],
    [
      "乱暴(らんぼー)",
      "乱暴#Japanese"
    ]
  ],
  "references": [],
  "descendants": [],
  "lexical": [
    {
      "pos": "noun",
      "glosses": [
        "One who is reckless, disregards orders, uses violence to solve all problems, and bravely charges headlong into the teeth of the enemy.",
        "An American variety of apple with a greenish-yellow skin, mottled and striped with dull red."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ],
      "recordId": "54913b41cae02ab247b6090ce5d708ff4dcba70c2783414c7bf86fd2e10fe9db",
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      "sourceRecordOrdinal": 1354824
    },
    {
      "pos": "name",
      "glosses": [
        "A surname."
      ],
      "tags": [],
      "recordId": "6727a4979746798851c2008e5c4ea77a80255692dffbbd220e7ea7e2c5c252d8",
      "rawRecordSha256": "037129d2466bef150bad1e88e2f181e934a23420d9cd09addaf237ddcf8de776",
      "sourceRecordOrdinal": 1354823
    }
  ],
  "omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
    "templates": 0,
    "links": 0,
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    "descendants": 0,
    "lexicalRecords": 0,
    "lexicalSenses": 0,
    "glosses": 0
  }
}

Where this record stops

This page does not supply an independently verified sound-change sequence, first-use manuscript or complete family tree unless a cited analysis explicitly establishes one. Missing detail here is a limit of this record—not a claim that humanity knows nothing more.

An older meaning does not determine what a word must mean today. Follow the sources, preserve disagreements, and keep ancestry separate from interpretation.

Contribute located evidence for Rambo →

Source and snapshot

Imported from Wiktionary contributors; extracted by Tatu Ylonen / Wiktextract / Kaikki.org. Selected fields are reformatted and grouped; wording, source identity and etymology sections are retained. CC-BY-SA-4.0 applies to the imported source material.

Dump: 2026-10-01 · Extracted: 2026-10-30. These are snapshot dates, not the word’s first attestation or the page’s revision date.

Source entry and bibliography ↗Wiktionary revision history ↗Acquisition and rights ledger
Machine-source provenance
Source SHA-256
5ff2c072f8099f2d2ce484bd6957bf179f046d2ad37bc36555edf8bb84cb5291
Import run
73216b9a9b78ed3830994bf853103716f5a4dc57099e371e9f8fdc468facca26
Permanent entry ID
w-UmFtYm8