Tobie
Feminine · “God is good”
Tobie is given to both — 1,390 girls and 931 boys since 1880. See Tobie as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Tobie is a short form that both sexes have used for centuries, and the name behind it comes out of a book that half the Bibles in the world contain and the other half do not — a story with an angel in disguise, a journey, a fish and a dog.
How old is the name Tobie?
Tobie first appears in US birth records in 1917 — 108 years ago. The typical Tobie alive today was born around 1974, making them about 51 years old. About 1,200 people named Tobie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tobie most popular?
Tobie peaked in 1975, reaching #1342 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 8,765 places below that high. See the whole 1975 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Tobiyah to Tobie
The story of Tobie
The Book of Tobit is a domestic adventure story rather than a work of law or prophecy, which is part of why it has always been loved by painters. A young man called Tobias is sent on a journey to collect a debt; a stranger offers to guide him and turns out to be the archangel Raphael; a fish nearly takes his foot in a river and is caught, and its gall later cures his father's blindness. And the family dog goes with them, and comes home with them — the only dog in the whole of scripture that anybody is pleased to see. Artists have been painting that dog for five hundred years. In English the name gave a household word too: a Toby jug is a pottery mug shaped like a stout seated man in a three-cornered hat, and nobody has ever established which man.
Meaning
God is good
The Hebrew behind Tobias and Tobit is tov, good, joined to the divine name: God is good. The reading is not disputed. The short form carries it unchanged, whichever sex is using it.
How the name formed
- Tobiyah
- Tobias
- Toby
- Tobie
Related forms: Tobias · Tobia · Tobie
Pronouncing Tobie
TOH-bee
Two syllables, stress at the front. Identical to Toby; the -ie ending is a written choice and nothing more.
Nicknames for Tobie
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
- 1917
- Most girls named
- 197471 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1342reached in 1975
- Change vs 2023
- 0.0%9 in 2025, from 9
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.
Tobie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tobias in German — related form
- Tobia in Italian — related form
- Tobie in French — same name
Tobies among us
people named Tobie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Tobie
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Greer test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tobie's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Greer climbed just as high around 1943, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Greer's path sketches the road Tobie is walking now.
Tobie 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
Tobie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tobie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, short and unreservedly warm.
- It works for a child and an adult without adjustment, which short forms often do not.
- It has a real long form available, Tobias, for anyone who wants one.
- Toby is the spelling most people know, and this one will be corrected toward it.
- The spelling is recorded for both sexes, with the girls holding most of it now and the boys most of the older record.
- It reads as a nickname, so she may be asked what it is short for.
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What they receive
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Tobie
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tobies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Tobie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tobie in 2025?
- Tobie ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tobie?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Tobie — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tobie with classmates?
- Tobie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tobie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tobie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tobie 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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