Robbin
Masculine · “bright with fame”
Robbin is given to both — 1,794 boys and 8,590 girls since 1880. See Robbin as a girl nameSee other names given to both
The bird is named after the name, not the other way round. Robin was a French pet form of Robert long before anyone called a red-breasted bird a robin — English gave familiar birds human names, which is also where jenny wren, jackdaw and the magpie's Mag come from. The doubled b in this spelling marks the women's version.
How old is the name Robbin?
Robbin first appears in US birth records in 1929 — 96 years ago. The typical Robbin alive today was born around 1960, making them about 65 years old. About 1,400 people named Robbin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Robbin most popular?
Robbin peaked in 1954, reaching #795 nationally. See the whole 1954 chart.
Where it comes from
From Hrodebert to Robbin
The story of Robbin
Robin was a man's name in England for six hundred years — Robin Hood is the obvious evidence, and the name in that phrase is Robert's pet form and nothing to do with a bird. It moved toward women in twentieth-century America, and when it did, the spelling supplied a marker as it always does: Robin stayed available for both, while Robbin, Robyn and Robbyn went almost entirely to daughters. The doubled b belongs to the same convention that produced Bobbi, Terri and Jodi in the same decades, and it does nothing audible.
Meaning
bright with fame
Robin is Robert with the French diminutive -in, and Robert joins two Germanic elements: hrod, fame or glory, and beraht, bright — the same beraht that gives English bright. The meaning is not disputed. The bird acquired the name in the fifteenth century as redbreast robin, an affectionate human nickname for a familiar garden visitor, and the human name was shortened out of it later, leaving the bird holding a personal name.
How the name formed
- Hrodebert
- Robert
- Robin
- Robbin
Related forms: Robin · Robert
Pronouncing Robbin
ROB-in
ROB-in, two syllables, stress at the front. The doubled b is silent work — English doubles a consonant after a short stressed vowel as a spelling habit, and this vowel was already short, so nothing changes.
Nicknames for Robbin
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
- 1929
- Most boys named
- 195785 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #795reached in 1954
- Change vs 2021
- −28.6%5 in 2022, from 7
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.
Robbin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Robin in French — same name
- Robert in German — related form
Robbins among us
people named Robbin are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Robbin sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The bird connection is genuine and runs the opposite way from what everyone assumes, which is a good thing to be able to say.
- Robert is available as a formal long form with a documented Germanic derivation.
- The sound is entirely familiar and never causes a stumble.
- Robin and Robyn are both far more common, and this spelling will be rewritten as one of them.
- The doubled b is inaudible, so it has to be dictated and will still be dropped.
- It is recorded for boys as well, and Robin has never stopped being a man's name in Britain, so the spelling settles less than it appears to.
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What they receive
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Robbin
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Robbins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Robbin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Robbin in 2025?
- Robbin is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Robbin with classmates?
- Robbin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More R names
The most-given names starting with R, all years combined.
Robert#92 · Richard#234 · Ronald#637 · Ryan#99 · Raymond#394 · Roger#832 · Ralph#1046 · Roy#525
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Robbin? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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