Tobitha
A feminine name derived from the Hebrew meaning "pleasing" or "good".
Name Census estimates that about 12 living Americans carry the first name Tobitha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tobitha today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tobitha births was 1942 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tobitha. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Tobitha. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
12
~ 1 in 28,562,862 Americans
Peak year
1942
6 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
1981 SSA rank
#12,066
Tracked since 1892
Popularity
Tobitha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tobitha from the 1890s through to the 1980s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 6 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
Tobitha 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 Tobitha 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 Tobitha
The name Tobitha is a feminine form of the Hebrew name Tobiah, which means "the Lord is good" or "goodness of the Lord." It has its roots in the Old Testament and the Jewish tradition. The name Tobiah first appears in the Book of Ezra, which describes the return of the Jewish exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem in the 5th century BC. One of the leaders of the exiles is named Tobiah the Ammonite.
In the Apocryphal book of Tobit, the main character is named Tobit, and his son is named Tobiah. This book, written around 200 BC, tells the story of Tobit's family and their trials and tribulations. The name Tobitha, the feminine form, is derived from this text.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Tobitha is in the New Testament book of Acts. In chapter 9, verse 36, a woman named Tabitha (the Aramaic version of Tobitha) is mentioned as a disciple of Jesus who lived in Joppa. She was known for her good deeds and charity work. When she died, Peter was summoned and brought her back to life, a miracle that led many people to believe in Christ.
In the 3rd century AD, there was a famous Christian martyr named Tobitha who was killed during the persecution of Christians by the Roman Emperor Decius. She is venerated as a saint in the Catholic and Orthodox churches.
Another notable figure named Tobitha was Tobitha Bundock, a 17th-century English woman who was one of the first female patients admitted to the Bethlem Royal Hospital in London, known as Bedlam. She was admitted in 1632 and remained there until her death in 1659.
In the late 18th century, there was a Tobitha Wheelock, who was born in 1767 in Connecticut, USA. She was a teacher and educator who founded one of the first schools for Native American children in New England.
Finally, Tobitha Smollett was a Scottish author and playwright who lived from 1721 to 1805. She was the sister of the famous novelist Tobias Smollett and wrote several plays and novels herself, including the comic novel The Life and Adventures of Miss Peggy Andrews.
People
Tobitha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tobitha 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
Tobitha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tobitha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 12 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tobitha 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 28,562,862 US residents.
Is Tobitha a common name?
We classify Tobitha as "Very Rare". It ranks above 32.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 21 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tobitha most popular?
The single biggest year for Tobitha was 1942, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tobitha is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Tobitha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tobitha in the SSA data are female. 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.
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.