Bobbi
A diminutive of Barbara, meaning "foreign" or "stranger" in Greek.
Name Census estimates that about 21,105 living Americans carry the first name Bobbi. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Bobbi today is around 48 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bobbi births was 1971 (853 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bobbi. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Bobbi with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Bobbi is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 64 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
21K
~ 1 in 16,240 Americans
Peak year
1971
853 babies that year
Average age
48
years old
1987 SSA rank
#2,008
Tracked since 1932
Census
Bobbi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 19,723 people with the first name Bobbi, which placed it at #1,616 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,616
National first-name rank
People counted
20K
19,723 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bobbi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bobbi is White at 84.6%. The next largest groups are Black (5.7%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Bobbi described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Bobbi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.6% · 16,680
- Black or African American5.7% · 1,119
- Two or more races3.9% · 777
- Hispanic or Latino3.8% · 750
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 279
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 118
Gender
Gender distribution for Bobbi
Out of the 24,172 babies given the name Bobbi since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Bobbi as a male name
- Ranked #6,180 in 1987
- 6 male births in 1987
- Peak: 1971 (9 births)
Bobbi as a female name
- Ranked #2,008 in 2024
- 97 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1971 (844 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bobbi appears almost entirely female. Of the 19,715 people counted with this name, 99.0% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Bobbi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bobbi from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 6,915 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Bobbi by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Bobbi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Bobbis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. Pennsylvania, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Bobbi, while New Hampshire, Connecticut, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 429 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Bobbi
The name Bobbi is a diminutive form of the English name Robert, derived from the Germanic elements "hrod" meaning "fame" and "berht" meaning "bright." The name Robert gained popularity after being introduced into Britain by Normans following the Norman Conquest in the 11th century.
The earliest recorded use of the name Bobbi can be traced back to the late 19th century, when it emerged as a diminutive form of Robert. One of the earliest known individuals with this name was Bobbi Trout, an American baseball player who played in the major leagues from 1944 to 1952.
In the world of literature, Bobbi is the name of a character in the novel "The Accidental Tourist" by Anne Tyler, published in 1985. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1986.
In the field of entertainment, Bobbi Kristina Brown (1993-2015) was the daughter of singers Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown. She was an aspiring actress and singer, but tragically passed away at the age of 22.
Bobbi Morse, also known as Mockingbird, is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She is a highly trained agent and a member of the Avengers and the World Counterterrorism Agency (W.C.A.).
Another notable individual with this name is Bobbi Brown (born 1957), an American professional makeup artist, author, and entrepreneur. She founded Bobbi Brown Cosmetics in 1991, which was later acquired by Estée Lauder Companies.
Bobbi Gibb (born 1942) is an American pioneer in women's long-distance running. In 1966, she became the first woman to run the entire Boston Marathon, challenging the then-existing rules that prohibited women from entering the race.
People
Bobbi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bobbi as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Bobbi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bobbi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 21,105 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bobbi going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 16,240 US residents.
Is Bobbi a common name?
We classify Bobbi as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 24,172 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bobbi most popular?
The single biggest year for Bobbi was 1971, when 853 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bobbi is about 48 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bobbi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 19,723 people with the name Bobbi, or 6.53 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,616 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Bobbi in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Bobbi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bobbi appears almost entirely female. Of the 19,715 people counted with this name, 99.0% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Bobbi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bobbi is White at 84.6%. The next largest groups are Black (5.7%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Bobbi most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Bobbi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.6% (16,680 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Bobbi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bobbi a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Bobbi in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Bobbi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bobbi in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Bobbi can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Bobbi?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.