Calob
Masculine · “dog”
Caleb means dog. That is the standard reading of the Hebrew and it is startling, because Caleb is one of the two men who came back from scouting Canaan and said it could be done — the only two of his generation allowed to enter it. A dog, in that world, meant loyal rather than contemptible.
How old is the name Calob?
Calob first appears in US birth records in 1981 — 44 years ago. The typical Calob alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 700 people named Calob are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Calob most popular?
Calob peaked in 2001, reaching #1912 nationally. Today it ranks #12008, 10,096 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From kelev to Calob
The story of Calob
Twelve men were sent to look at Canaan and ten came back saying it could not be taken. Caleb and Joshua disagreed, the people believed the ten, and the story has the whole generation condemned to die in the desert except those two. The text later says Caleb had a different spirit and followed wholly, which is where the whole-hearted reading probably comes from — it reads as an explanation attached to a name that meant something plainer. Dogs in the ancient Near East were working animals and the association was loyalty and vigilance rather than the contempt the word carries elsewhere in the Bible. The o in this modern spelling is American and changes nothing you can hear.
Meaningscholars disagree
dog
Hebrew kelev is the ordinary word for a dog and is the usual derivation. A second reading splits the name as kol lev, all heart or whole-hearted, which fits the story and looks like a later gloss. The dog reading is the better supported and the less comfortable.
How the name formed
- kelev
- Caleb
- Calob
Related forms: Kalev
Pronouncing Calob
KAY-lub
Two syllables, stress on the first. Caleb and Calob are said identically; the second vowel is reduced and carries no information. Hebrew Kalev puts the weight at the end.
Nicknames for Calob
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1981
- Most boys named
- 200157 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1912reached in 2001
- Change vs 2021
- 0.0%5 in 2025, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Calob in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kalev in Hebrew — same name
Calobs among us
people named Calob are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 341,615 born in 2025 was named Calob
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Calob
- #12008
- Calob on the 2025 chart
- #917
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Calob went to 5 boys in 2025, but Kalob is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 11, which makes it the 917th most-given boys’ name of the year — 11,091 places above the chart.
- Kalob6
- Calob5
About 1 boy in 155,280 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 341,615 for Calob itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Cheston test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Calob's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Cheston climbed just as high around 1978, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Cheston's path sketches the road Calob is walking now.
Calob sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Calob beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Calob in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Hebrew meaning that is plain and easy to check.
- Cal works as a short form and serves either child.
- A documented biblical bearer with a story of unusual clarity.
- Caleb is overwhelmingly the standard spelling and this one will be corrected constantly.
- The meaning is dog, which is either a good story or one to leave unmentioned.
- The o adds a letter and no sound at all.
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Calob
Masculine · #12008 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Calobs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Calob are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Calob?
- Calob is one of 2 recorded spellings. Kalob is the more common one — 6 births in 2025 against 5 for Calob.
- How popular is the name Calob in 2025?
- Calob ranks #12008 among US boy names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Calob?
- About 1 in every 341,615 US boys born in 2025 was named Calob — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Calob with classmates?
- Calob will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Calob
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Garfield#12008 · Chas#12008 · Lew#12008 · Barney#12008 · Dewitt#12008 · Granville#12008 · Cicero#12008 · Willam#12008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Calob? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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