The R->H nicknames are interesting considering the northern French "r" sounds like the aspirated "h" in English. Many French would pronounce Robert as approxima

The R->H nicknames are interesting considering the northern French "r" sounds like the aspirated "h" in English. Many French would pronounce Robert as approximately "ho-beh(r)". I wonder if this is a place where idiosyncratic spelling captured differences in pronunciation of the name, but the common given name never changed its spelling.