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Tabby

Girls' name

Diminutive of Tabitha

Tabby has been given to 167 babies in the U.S. since 1955. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1971, with 19 recorded.

Babies named Tabby, 1976

1 in 506,000

Tabby over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Tabby: meaning, origin, and history

Diminutive of Tabitha

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Tabby means

Tabby is a diminutive of Tabitha.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Tabby is used in English.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈtæb.i/ for Tabby.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Tabby → Tabitha. The family’s meaning is “doe, roe, gazelle”, recorded in English with the source elements Ṭabītā’.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Tabitha and Tabetha.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 162 girls were recorded with the name Tabby between 1955 and 1976. Its highest annual count was 19 in 1971; its best national rank was #3,131 in 1966.

In the United States, 5 boys were recorded with the name Tabby between 1960 and 1960. Its highest annual count was 5 in 1960; its best national rank was #4,543 in 1960.

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 Tabby?

Tabby had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1976, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1976
1 in 506,000
6 of 3,034,007 births
Among girls only
1 in 244,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1976
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
350,503 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Tabby sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1976 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 350,503 children born in 1976 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Tabby. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Tabbys were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Tabby was born before 1967 — so the typical Tabby is around 58 today.

Median birth year
1967
About 58 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
46.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
100.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
162
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 46.9% of all recorded uses (76).

Is Tabby 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1971 (19)
Years since peak
54
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
32.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,131
1966

Spellings of Tabby

Tabby is not the most common spelling — Tammy is, with 68.9% against Tabby's 0.03%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Tabby is used

Across 1910–2025, Tabby was most concentrated in Ohio — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 1,495,549 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Ohio1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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. Tabby has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Tabby by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#3,131
1966
Peak year
1971
19 that year
First recorded
1955
Last recorded
1976
All-time count
162
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#4,543
1960
Peak year
1960
5 that year
First recorded
1960
Last recorded
1960
All-time count
5
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Tabby

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

TabiaTaborTabitaTabriaRobbyTaberGabbyRubbyTabrinaTabithiaTabathiaTabbethaTabbieTabythaTabeaBabbyTabreaTabbithaEbbyTabbathaTabethiaTabassumTabaithaTabresha

Sibling names for Tabby

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 Tabby

Top names of 1971, Tabby's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1966Girls' names starting with T