Tobby
Of Germanic origin meaning "from a big family".
Name Census estimates that about 364 living Americans carry the first name Tobby. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Tobby today is around 49 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tobby births was 1977 (36 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tobby. 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.
People living today
364
~ 1 in 941,633 Americans
Peak year
1977
36 babies that year
Average age
49
years old
2015 SSA rank
#13,850
Tracked since 1956
Census
Tobby in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 413 people with the first name Tobby, which placed it at #23,623 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
#23,623
National first-name rank
People counted
413
413 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
63.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tobby
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tobby is White at 63.7%. The next largest groups are Black (16.5%) and Hispanic (7.5%). 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 Tobby 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 Tobby at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White63.7% · 263
- Black or African American16.5% · 68
- Hispanic or Latino7.5% · 31
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.3% · 26
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.1% · 13
- Two or more races2.9% · 12
Popularity
Tobby: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tobby from the 1950s through to the 2010s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 233 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tobby 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 Tobby during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tobby
The name Tobby has its origins in the Hebrew language and can be traced back to the biblical period. It is a diminutive form of the name Tobiah, which means "Yahweh is good" or "God is good." The name Tobiah is found in the book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament, where it refers to a Jewish leader who helped rebuild the walls of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile.
Historically, the name Tobby was popular among Jewish communities, particularly in Eastern Europe. It was also used by some Christian families, especially in regions where Jewish and Christian cultures intersected. The earliest recorded instances of the name Tobby can be found in medieval records from the 13th and 14th centuries.
One notable figure who bore the name Tobby was Tobby Rosenthal, a German-Jewish philosopher and scholar who lived in the 16th century (c. 1517-1588). He was known for his contributions to the study of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism.
Another historical figure with the name Tobby was Tobby Lipschitz, a Polish-Jewish merchant and philanthropist who lived in the 17th century (c. 1620-1692). He was renowned for his charitable works and support for Jewish communities across Eastern Europe.
In the 18th century, there was Tobby Hirschfeld, a German-Jewish writer and poet (1704-1776). He was a prominent figure in the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment movement, and his works helped shape the development of modern Hebrew literature.
Moving to the 19th century, we find Tobby Kramer, a Hungarian-Jewish journalist and political activist (1819-1888). He was a vocal advocate for Jewish emancipation and played a significant role in the struggle for equal rights in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Finally, in the early 20th century, there was Tobby Levinson, a Russian-Jewish artist and painter (1892-1962). He was known for his vibrant and expressive works, which often depicted scenes of everyday life in Jewish shtetls (villages) and cities.
People
Tobby + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tobby as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Tobby: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tobby?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 364 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tobby 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 941,633 US residents.
Is Tobby a common name?
We classify Tobby as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 394 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tobby most popular?
The single biggest year for Tobby was 1977, when 36 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tobby is about 49 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tobby in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 413 people with the name Tobby, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,623 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 Tobby 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 Tobby?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tobby leans strongly male. 383 people counted with this name were male (93.0%), compared with 29 female bearers (7.0%). 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 Tobby?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tobby is White at 63.7%. The next largest groups are Black (16.5%) and Hispanic (7.5%). 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 Tobby most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tobby in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.7% (263 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 Tobby in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tobby a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tobby 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 Tobby still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tobby 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 Tobby 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 Tobby as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.