Toby
Feminine · “God is good”
Toby is given to both — 8,387 girls and 34,846 boys since 1880. See Toby as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Toby is Tobias shortened, and the Hebrew is God is good — the name of a book in which an angel travels incognito with a young man and a dog.
How old is the name Toby?
Toby first appears in US birth records in 1902 — 123 years ago. The typical Toby alive today was born around 1961, making them about 64 years old. About 6,200 people named Toby are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Toby most popular?
Toby peaked in 1936, reaching #525 nationally. Today it ranks #1911, 1,386 places below that high. See the whole 1936 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From tov Yah to Toby
The story of Toby
The book of Tobit has the archangel Raphael travel in disguise with young Tobias and his dog, cure a blindness with fish gall, and drive off a demon — one of the most novelistic books in the deuterocanon. Toby became an English name from the Middle Ages, and feminine use is recent and in the registers now.
Meaning
God is good
Through Tobias, from the Hebrew Toviyah — tov, 'good', and Yah, the divine name. It is a complete statement. The same tov is the word in mazel tov. The Hebrew is ordinary and the reading undisputed.
How the name formed
- tov Yah
- Toviyah
- Tobias
- Toby
Related forms: Tobias · Toviyah · Tobi
Pronouncing Toby
TOH-bee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Said identically whichever sex carries it.
Nicknames for Toby
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
- 1902
- Most girls named
- 1942156 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #525reached in 1936
- Change vs 2023
- +3.1%101 in 2025, from 98
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.
Toby in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tobias in English — related form
- Toviyah in Hebrew — related form
- Tobi in German — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, New Jersey.
Tobys among us
people named Toby are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 15,914 born in 2025 was named Toby
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Toby
- #1911
- Toby on the 2025 chart
- #846
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Toby went to 101 girls in 2025, but Tobi 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 — 1,065 places above the chart.
- Toby101
- Tobi13
About 1 girl in 14,099 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 15,914 for Toby 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 Myrtice test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Toby's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Myrtice climbed just as high around 1907, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Myrtice's path sketches the road Toby is walking now.
Toby 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
Where Toby is headed
Toby should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Toby beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Toby 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 a complete statement and is undisputed.
- The book of Tobit is genuinely the most novel-like thing in the deuterocanon.
- Tobias is available as a full formal version.
- It reads as masculine to nearly everyone.
- It is a very common dog's name.
- As a diminutive on the certificate it carries an informal register.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Toby to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Toby? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Toby
Feminine · #1911 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tobys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,200 people named Toby are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Toby?
- Toby is the most-used spelling in US records — 101 of the 114 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Tobi.
- How popular is the name Toby in 2025?
- Toby ranks #1911 among US girl names in 2025, with 101 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Toby?
- About 1 in every 15,914 US girls born in 2025 was named Toby — 101 in all.
- Will my child share the name Toby with classmates?
- Toby will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Toby
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Susie#1911 · Wesley#1911 · Carlee#1911 · Sahana#1911 · Chosen#1911 · Philomena#1911 · Valkyrie#1911 · Jazzlyn#1911
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Toby? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Toby and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle