From J.R.R. Tolkien's Of Hobbits:

Hobbit was a name applied by Shire-Folks to all of their kind. Men called them Halflings and the Elves called them Periannath. The origin of the word Hobbit was by most forgotten. It seems, however, to have been at first a name given to the Harfoots by the Fallohides and Stoors, and to be a worn-down form of a word preserved more fully in Rohan: holbytla or hole-digger.

The most famous of the Hobbits were Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins, Belladonna Took, Gorbadoc Brandybuck, the Old Took, Samwise Gamgee, Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took.

These characters appear in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, also known as the Red Book of Westmarch.