Kobie
A playful diminutive of Jacob, meaning "supplanter" or "holder of the heel".
Name Census estimates that about 1,920 living Americans carry the first name Kobie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 77.7% of registrations being male. The average person named Kobie today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kobie births was 1998 (133 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kobie. 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 Kobie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.9K
~ 1 in 178,518 Americans
Peak year
1998
133 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,818
Tracked since 1971
Census
Kobie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,515 people with the first name Kobie, which placed it at #9,262 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
#9,262
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,515 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
40.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kobie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kobie is White at 40.1%. The next largest groups are Black (38.0%) and Two or More Races (8.9%). 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 Kobie 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 Kobie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White40.1% · 608
- Black or African American38.0% · 575
- Two or more races8.9% · 135
- Hispanic or Latino8.3% · 126
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 46
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 25
Gender
Gender distribution for Kobie
Kobie is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,961 total registrations, 1,523 (77.7%) were male and 438 (22.3%) were female.
Kobie as a male name
- Ranked #4,964 in 2024
- 20 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2000 (110 births)
Kobie as a female name
- Ranked #4,818 in 2024
- 28 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2020 (34 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kobie on both sides of the split. Of the 1,507 people counted with this name, 1,186 were male (78.7%) and 321 were female (21.3%).
Popularity
Kobie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kobie from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 690 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Kobie remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kobie 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 Kobie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kobies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. Texas, California, New York recorded the most babies named Kobie, while Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 23 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kobie
The name Kobie is believed to have originated from the Dutch language. It is a diminutive form of the name Jacob, which itself is derived from the Hebrew name Ya'aqov, meaning "supplanter" or "one who follows". The earliest recorded use of the name Kobie dates back to the 17th century in the Netherlands.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Kobie was Kobie Kalkman, a Dutch painter who lived from 1723 to 1798. He was known for his landscapes and maritime scenes, and his works can be found in various museums across the Netherlands and Europe.
In the 19th century, Kobie van Westerop (1829-1895) was a Dutch politician and jurist who served as the Minister of Justice in the Netherlands from 1891 to 1893. He was instrumental in implementing several legal reforms during his tenure.
Another notable figure with the name Kobie was Kobie Coetzee (1945-2022), a South African cricketer who played as a right-arm fast-medium bowler for the South African national team in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was part of the team that toured England in 1970 and played in the first-ever One Day International match.
In the world of literature, Kobie Kruger (1950-2012) was a South African writer and poet who wrote extensively in Afrikaans. Her works explored themes of identity, gender, and the complexities of life in post-apartheid South Africa. She received numerous literary awards and accolades during her lifetime.
Kobie Venter (1950-), a South African actress and playwright, is another individual who has carried the name Kobie. She has had a long and successful career in the performing arts, appearing in numerous stage productions, films, and television shows. Her plays have addressed various social and political issues in South Africa.
While the name Kobie has its origins in the Dutch language, it has been adopted and used in various cultures and regions around the world, particularly in South Africa, where it has gained popularity as a given name for both males and females.
People
Kobie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kobie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kobie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kobie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,920 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kobie 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 178,518 US residents.
Is Kobie a common name?
We classify Kobie as "Rare". It ranks above 93.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,961 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kobie most popular?
The single biggest year for Kobie was 1998, when 133 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kobie is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kobie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,515 people with the name Kobie, or 0.50 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,262 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 Kobie 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 Kobie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kobie on both sides of the split. Of the 1,507 people counted with this name, 1,186 were male (78.7%) and 321 were female (21.3%). 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 Kobie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kobie is White at 40.1%. The next largest groups are Black (38.0%) and Two or More Races (8.9%). 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 Kobie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kobie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 40.1% (608 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 Kobie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kobie a male name?
Yes, 77.7% of people registered as Kobie in the SSA data are male. 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 Kobie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kobie 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 Kobie 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 Kobie?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.