Bertolt

Bertolt is a German given name derived from the Old High German elements beraht, meaning bright or famous, and walt, meaning ruler or power, making the full sense approximately famous ruler. It is a contracted form of the older name Bertwald or Berthold, which carried the same root elements and was more common in medieval Germanic usage. The name is widely associated today with the German playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht, whose influential twentieth-century work brought lasting recognition to this rare form. Berthold and Berchtold are closely related variants found across German-speaking regions.