Name Awesome

Rob

#10,453 in 2025Boys' name

Shining glory, through Robert

Rob has been given to 8,775 babies in the U.S. since 1884. In 2025 it ranked #10,453 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1963, with 555 recorded.

Babies named Rob, 2025

1 in 474,000

Rob over time, 1880–2025

Boys
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Rob: meaning, origin, and history

Shining glory, through Robert

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Rob means

Rob belongs to the name family reached through Rob → Robert. Its meaning is “shining glory”.

Origin, language, and formation

Rob is used in English, Dutch and Scottish Gaelic.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Robert, Robin and Raibeart.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Rob is pronounced /ɹɒb/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 8,775 boys were recorded with the name Rob between 1884 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 555 in 1963; its best national rank was #334 in 1963.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #13,644 in 2020 to #10,453 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Rob?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 474,000
7 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 244,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#10,453
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
328,272 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Rob sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 328,272 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Rob. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Robs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Rob was born before 1964 — so the typical Rob is around 61 today.

Median birth year
1964
About 61 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
47.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
2.7%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
8,089
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 47.4% of all recorded uses (4,159).

Is Rob rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+1,602
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+3,191
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
1.3%
Peak was 1963 (555)
Years since peak
62
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
36.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#334
1963

Where Rob is used

Across 1910–2025, Rob was most concentrated in Washington — about 1 in 7,143 boys, against 1 in 27,721 across all states with data. It was least common in West Virginia (1 in —).

014 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Washington1 in 7,143
  2. 2Oregon1 in 10,000
  3. 3Idaho1 in 11,111
  4. 4Michigan1 in 12,500
  5. 5Ohio1 in 12,500
  6. 6Iowa1 in 14,286
  7. 7Indiana1 in 14,286
  8. 8California1 in 16,667

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Rob has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Rob around the world

Where Rob ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2016
    #4,810
    in 2016
  • Scotland
    1989–2005
    #446
    in 2005
  • Ireland
    2016–2019
    #764
    in 2019
  • Canada
    1999–1999
    #2,002
    in 1999
  • South Australia
    1953–1985
    #449
    in 1985

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Central Statistics Office, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Rob

People whose public names include Rob, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Rob in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Rob. Linked forms have their own page here.

BobBertRobertRoberthRobertoRobertsRobhRöbiRobatRöpkeRóbertRobertasRobertusRobrecht

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Rob by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#10,453
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 3,191
Best rank ever
#334
1963
Peak year
1963
555 that year
First recorded
1884
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
8,775
Count in 2025
7

Names similar to Rob

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

RobbyRobbRobyRobbieRobinRobynRobelRobieRobinsonRobtRobetRobbinRobertoRoberRobbiRobiRobertaRobleyRobeyRobenRobbertRoberthRobertsRobson

Names with a curve like Rob

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Rob, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

DinoBartTimmyCurtScotRussKipRichMattKirtDougChuck

Sibling names for Rob

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Rob

Top names of 1963, Rob's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1963Boys' names starting with RRobert Variations & NicknamesShort Dutch Boy Names