Bodo (variants Botho, Boto, Boddo, Potho, Boda, Puoto, etc.) is an Old High German name, also adopted in Modern German. It is in origin a short name or hypocorism for Germanic names with a first element Bod-, Puot-, reflecting the verbal root beud- "to bid, command". As a monothematic name, Old High German Boto, Old Saxon Bodo, could mean "lord, commander" or alternatively "messenger" (c.f. Old English bod "command; message", boda "messenger, angel"). Full dithematic names with this first element (attested for the medieval period but not surviving into modern use) included Bodegisil, Bothad, Bodomar, Boderad, Poterich, Bodirid, Butwin, Potelfrid, Botolf, Podalolf, Bodenolf.
The Anglo-Saxon cognate was Beda (West Saxon Bīeda, Northumbrian Bǣda, Anglian Bēda).
Middle Ages
Bodo (deacon), 9th-century German deacon who converted to Judaism, assuming the name of Eleazar
Bodo VII, Count of Stolberg-Wernigerode (1375-1455)
Bodo VIII, Count of Stolberg-Wernigerode (1467-1538)
Early Modern
Bodo Otto (1711–1787), a Senior Surgeon of the Continental Army during the American Revolution
Modern
Bodo Bittner, West German bobsledder
Bodo Ferl (born 1959), East German retired bobsledder
Bodo Hell (born 1943), Austrian writer
Bodo Hombach (born 1952), German politician
Bodo Illgner (born 1967), German former football goalkeeper
Bodo Lafferentz (1897–1974), Nazi and high-ranking SS officer
Bodo Linnhoff (born 1948), chemical engineer
Botho Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein (1927–2008), German politician
Bodo Ramelow (born 1956), German politician
Bodo Rudwaleit (born 1957), German former football goalkeeper
Bodo Schmidt (born 1967), German football coach and former player
Botho Strauß (b. 1944), German playwright
Bodo Thyssen (1918–2004), German industrialist and medical doctor
Bodo Tümmler (born 1943), German former middle distance runner
