Name Awesome

Tobe

Boys' name

My good is YHWH, through Toby

Tobe has been given to 978 babies in the U.S. since 1880. 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 1916, with 20 recorded.

Babies named Tobe, 2022

1 in 564,000

Tobe over time, 1880–2025

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Tobe: meaning, origin, and history

My good is YHWH, through Toby

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Tobe means

Tobe belongs to the name family reached through Tobe → Toby → Tobias. Its meaning is “my good is YHWH”.

Origin, language, and formation

Tobe is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Toby and Tobias.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 949 boys were recorded with the name Tobe between 1880 and 2022. Its highest annual count was 20 in 1916; its best national rank was #440 in 1881.

In the United States, 29 girls were recorded with the name Tobe between 1945 and 1976. Its highest annual count was 8 in 1964; its best national rank was #5,177 in 1945.

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 Tobe?

Tobe had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2022, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2022
1 in 564,000
6 of 3,385,755 births
Among boys only
1 in 291,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2022
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
391,139 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Tobe 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 2022 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 391,139 children born in 2022 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Tobe. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Tobes were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Tobe was born before 1925 — so the typical Tobe is around 100 today.

Median birth year
1925
About 100 years old
Biggest decade
1910s
14.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
9.8%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
314
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1910s — 14.3% of all recorded uses (136).

Is Tobe 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 1916 (20)
Years since peak
109
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
20.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#440
1881

Spellings of Tobe

Tobe is not the most common spelling — Jose is, with 26.1% against Tobe's 0.04%.

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 Tobe is used

Across 1910–2025, Tobe was most concentrated in Alabama — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 966,129 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Alabama1 in —
  2. 2Georgia1 in —
  3. 3Texas1 in —

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. Tobe has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Tobe around the world

Where Tobe 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
    2006–2006
    #4,052
    in 2006

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0.

Tobe by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#440
1881
Peak year
1916
20 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2022
All-time count
949
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#5,177
1945
Peak year
1964
8 that year
First recorded
1945
Last recorded
1976
All-time count
29
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Tobe

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

TobiTobeyCobeJobeTobiahTobynTobieTobinTobbyJacobeTobennaTobyTobenJakobeKobeTobiasTobechiObeJkobeTobechukwuTobiusTobyasNakobeTobbie

Sibling names for Tobe

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 Tobe

Top names of 1916, Tobe's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1881Boys' names starting with T