Tobi
Feminine · “Hebrew "Yahweh is good”
Tobi is given to both — 2,936 girls and 631 boys since 1880. See Tobi as a boy nameSee other names given to both
The Book of Tobit contains the only pet dog in the Bible. It follows Tobias and the angel Raphael on the journey, is mentioned twice for no plot reason at all, and comes home wagging its tail — a domestic detail that survives from the second century BC.
How old is the name Tobi?
Tobi first appears in US birth records in 1934 — 91 years ago. The typical Tobi alive today was born around 1975, making them about 50 years old. About 2,700 people named Tobi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tobi most popular?
Tobi peaked in 1975, reaching #886 nationally. Today it ranks #7885, 6,999 places below that high. See the whole 1975 chart.
Where it comes from
From Toviyah to Tobi
The story of Tobi
Tobit is a deuterocanonical book, in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles and outside the Jewish and Protestant canons, and it reads more like a folk tale than anything around it: a blind father, a journey, an angel in disguise, a demon, a fish whose organs are medicine, and a dog. The dog is the striking part. Biblical dogs are otherwise scavengers and insults; this one simply accompanies the travelers and returns with them, and the detail is generally read as evidence that the book was written in a Hellenistic environment where a pet dog was unremarkable. Fragments in Aramaic and Hebrew were found at Qumran. The American female Tobi peaks in 1975.
Meaning
Hebrew "Yahweh is good"
Tobias is from Toviyah, tov, good, plus Yah, the abbreviated divine name. Tobi is a clip used for both sexes. Separately, Tobi is a Yoruba name, a shortening of longer names such as Oluwatobiloba, God is great enough to be king; the two are unrelated and both appear in American records.
How the name formed
- Toviyah
- Tobias
- Tobi
Related forms: Toby · Tobi · טוביה
Pronouncing Tobi
TOH-bee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Tobi and Toby are pronounced identically; the Yoruba Tobi has the same syllables but carries tones that English does not reproduce.
Nicknames for Tobi
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
- 1934
- Most girls named
- 1975150 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #886reached in 1975
- Change vs 2023
- −35.0%13 in 2025, from 20
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.
Tobi in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Toby in English — spelling variant
- Tobi in Yoruba — same name
- טוביה in Hebrew — related form
Tobis among us
people named Tobi are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 123,636 born in 2025 was named Tobi
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Tobi
- #7885
- Tobi on the 2025 chart
- #846
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Tobi went to 13 girls in 2025, but Toby is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 114, which makes it the 846th most-given girls’ name of the year — 7,039 places above the chart.
- Toby101
- Tobi13
About 1 girl in 14,099 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 123,636 for Tobi 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 Elana test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tobi's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Elana climbed just as high around 1960, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Elana's path sketches the road Tobi is walking now.
Tobi 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
Tobi beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tobi in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is short, phonetic and impossible to mispronounce.
- The Hebrew meaning is settled and entirely positive.
- It works as a standalone name in Hebrew and Yoruba traditions alike.
- It reads as a male name to most Americans.
- Two unrelated origins share the spelling.
- It is heard as a nickname rather than a full legal name.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Tobi
Feminine · #7885 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tobis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,700 people named Tobi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Tobi?
- Tobi is one of 2 recorded spellings. Toby is the more common one — 101 births in 2025 against 13 for Tobi.
- How popular is the name Tobi in 2025?
- Tobi ranks #7885 among US girl names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tobi?
- About 1 in every 123,636 US girls born in 2025 was named Tobi — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tobi with classmates?
- Tobi will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tobi
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ola#7885 · Loula#7885 · Consuelo#7885 · Santa#7885 · Florentina#7885 · Marty#7885 · Jaye#7885 · Dollie#7885
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tobi? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tobi and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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