Kobi
A given name derived from the Hebrew name Jacob, meaning "supplanter".
Name Census estimates that about 2,965 living Americans carry the first name Kobi. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 63.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Kobi today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kobi births was 2021 (190 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kobi. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Kobi with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kobi was once a predominantly female name but has become increasingly popular for boys in recent decades.
- • Kobi sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • Kobi is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
3.0K
~ 1 in 115,600 Americans
Peak year
2021
190 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,677
Tracked since 1958
Census
Kobi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,144 people with the first name Kobi, which placed it at #7,188 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#7,188
National first-name rank
People counted
2.1K
2,144 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
42.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kobi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kobi is White at 42.6%. The next largest groups are Black (30.7%) and Two or More Races (11.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Kobi described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Kobi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White42.6% · 913
- Black or African American30.7% · 659
- Two or more races11.5% · 247
- Hispanic or Latino9.0% · 194
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.7% · 100
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 31
Gender
Gender distribution for Kobi
Kobi is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 3,016 total registrations, 1,911 (63.4%) were male and 1,105 (36.6%) were female.
Kobi as a male name
- Ranked #1,677 in 2024
- 100 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2000 (102 births)
Kobi as a female name
- Ranked #2,638 in 2024
- 66 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (101 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kobi on both sides of the split. Of the 2,149 people counted with this name, 1,446 were male (67.3%) and 703 were female (32.7%).
Popularity
Kobi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kobi from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 846 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kobi by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Kobi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kobis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 21 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Kobi, while Tennessee, Maryland, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 33 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kobi
The name Kobi is derived from the Hebrew language and culture. It is a masculine name that originated in ancient Israel, likely during the biblical era.
Kobi is a diminutive form of the Hebrew name Yaakov, which means "supplanter" or "one who follows". The root of the name, "akev", is related to the idea of following or coming after. This biblical connection links the name to the patriarch Jacob, also known as Israel, from the Book of Genesis.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kobi can be found in the Talmud, a central text of Rabbinic Judaism. The Talmud mentions a sage named Kobi, who lived during the Mishnaic period, around the 2nd century CE.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Kobi. One of the earliest was Kobi ben Nahman (born around 270 CE), a prominent Jewish scholar and leader in Babylonia during the Talmudic era.
Another famous bearer of the name was Kobi ben Shmuel (born around 1050 CE), a renowned Jewish philosopher and Torah commentator from Spain during the Golden Age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula.
In more recent times, Kobi Anan (1938-2018) was a notable Ghanaian diplomat and the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, serving from 1997 to 2006.
Kobi Yamada (born 1955) is a Japanese-American writer and motivational speaker, best known for his inspirational children's books, including the bestseller "What Do You Do With an Idea?".
Kobi Marimi (born 1975) is an Israeli singer and songwriter who has had a successful career in the Israeli music industry, with several hit albums and awards.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who have carried the name Kobi, showcasing its enduring presence across various cultures and time periods.
People
Kobi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kobi as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kobi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kobi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,965 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kobi going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 115,600 US residents.
Is Kobi a common name?
We classify Kobi as "Rare". It ranks above 95.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,016 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kobi most popular?
The single biggest year for Kobi was 2021, when 190 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kobi is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kobi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,144 people with the name Kobi, or 0.71 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,188 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Kobi in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Kobi?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kobi on both sides of the split. Of the 2,149 people counted with this name, 1,446 were male (67.3%) and 703 were female (32.7%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Kobi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kobi is White at 42.6%. The next largest groups are Black (30.7%) and Two or More Races (11.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Kobi most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kobi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.6% (913 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Kobi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kobi a male name?
Yes, 63.4% of people registered as Kobi in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Kobi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kobi in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Kobi can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Kobi?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Kobi, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.