Cobe
Masculine · “one who follows”
Cobe is a short name with two long names behind it. In Dutch and English it has been a clipping of Jacob for centuries, alongside Cobus and Coby, and in modern American use it is also a respelling of Kobe, the name of the Japanese port city. Which one it is depends entirely on the family.
How old is the name Cobe?
Cobe first appears in US birth records in 1996 — 29 years ago. The typical Cobe alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 800 people named Cobe are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cobe most popular?
Cobe peaked in 2001, reaching #1816 nationally. Today it ranks #4707, 2,891 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yaaqov to Cobe
The story of Cobe
Dutch and Flemish families have shortened Jacobus to Cobus and Cobe for centuries, and English did something similar with Coby. That is the older road. The newer one runs through the Japanese port of Kobe, known abroad for its beef, which became an American given name in the nineteen-nineties and rose sharply on the back of a basketball career. Cobe with a c is the spelling that keeps the sound and steps away from both: closer to Jacob in look, closer to Kobe in sound.
Meaningscholars disagree
one who follows, through Jacob; or the Japanese city
On the Jacob road: Hebrew Yaaqov, connected in Genesis with the heel, the child who came out holding his brother's heel, and traditionally glossed as supplanter. On the other road, Kobe is a Japanese city whose name means door of the gods. Cobe with a c sits between the two and takes its meaning from whichever the family means.
How the name formed
- Yaaqov
- Iacobus
- Jacobus
- Cobus
- Cobe
Related forms: Cobus · Coby · 神戸
Pronouncing Cobe
KOHB
One syllable with a long o and a silent e, rhyming with robe. Some families say KOH-bee instead, on the Kobe pattern, and the spelling allows either.
Nicknames for Cobe
Limited
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
- 1996
- Most boys named
- 200161 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1816reached in 2001
- Change vs 2024
- −30.0%21 in 2025, from 30
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.
Cobe in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cobus in Dutch — related form
- Coby in English — spelling variant
- 神戸 in Japanese — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Ohio, Texas.
Cobes among us
people named Cobe are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 81,337 born in 2025 was named Cobe
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Cobe
- #4707
- Cobe on the 2025 chart
- #460
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Cobe went to 21 boys in 2025, but Kobe is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 599, which makes it the 460th most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,247 places above the chart.
- Kobe578
- Cobe21
About 1 boy in 2,852 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 81,337 for Cobe 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 Sarkis test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cobe's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sarkis climbed just as high around 1923, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sarkis's path sketches the road Cobe is walking now.
Cobe 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
Cobe beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cobe in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, one syllable: easy to write, easy to call, hard to mangle.
- It connects to Jacob, which gives it a formal option and a very long history.
- It is rare in this spelling while being instantly familiar in sound.
- Kobe is the far commoner spelling, and the c version will be corrected constantly.
- One syllable and a silent e leave two possible pronunciations, KOHB and KOH-bee.
- The Kobe association is strong enough that the name will often be read as a tribute.
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What they receive
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Cobe
Masculine · #4707 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cobes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Cobe are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Cobe?
- Cobe is one of 2 recorded spellings. Kobe is the more common one — 578 births in 2025 against 21 for Cobe.
- How popular is the name Cobe in 2025?
- Cobe ranks #4707 among US boy names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cobe?
- About 1 in every 81,337 US boys born in 2025 was named Cobe — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cobe with classmates?
- Cobe will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cobe
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ole#4707 · Shelton#4707 · Constantino#4707 · Adel#4707 · Cord#4707 · Zalman#4707 · Montez#4707 · Homer#4707
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cobe? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cobe and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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