Tobie
A masculine name of Old German origin meaning "wealthy gentleman".
Name Census estimates that about 1,873 living Americans carry the first name Tobie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 59.8% of registrations being female. The average person named Tobie today is around 45 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tobie births was 1975 (102 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tobie. 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 Tobie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Tobie sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
1.9K
~ 1 in 182,998 Americans
Peak year
1975
102 babies that year
Average age
45
years old
2023 SSA rank
#12,024
Tracked since 1886
Census
Tobie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,820 people with the first name Tobie, which placed it at #8,078 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
#8,078
National first-name rank
People counted
1.8K
1,820 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tobie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tobie is White at 79.0%. The next largest groups are Black (8.5%) and Hispanic (4.5%). 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 Tobie 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 Tobie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.0% · 1,438
- Black or African American8.5% · 154
- Hispanic or Latino4.5% · 82
- Two or more races4.0% · 73
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 47
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 26
Gender
Gender distribution for Tobie
Tobie is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 2,310 total registrations, 929 (40.2%) were male and 1,381 (59.8%) were female.
Tobie as a male name
- Ranked #13,983 in 2023
- 5 male births in 2023
- Peak: 1973 (27 births)
Tobie as a female name
- Ranked #12,024 in 2024
- 8 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1975 (80 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Tobie on both sides of the split. Of the 1,820 people counted with this name, 664 were male (36.5%) and 1,156 were female (63.5%).
Popularity
Tobie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tobie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 653 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
Tobie 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 Tobie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tobies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Tobie, while New York, Missouri, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 17 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tobie
The name Tobie is believed to have its origins in the Hebrew language, derived from the biblical name Tobiah, which means "Yahweh is good." The earliest recorded use of the name dates back to the Old Testament's Book of Ezra, where Tobiah is mentioned as a Levite who returned to Jerusalem from Babylon after the Babylonian captivity.
The name Tobiah gained prominence in the Apocryphal book of Tobit, which tells the story of a pious Israelite named Tobit and his son Tobiah, who goes on a journey accompanied by the archangel Raphael (disguised as a human companion). The book of Tobit is part of the Catholic and Orthodox biblical canons, but is considered non-canonical by Protestants.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Tobie was Tobie Matthew (1546-1628), an English translator and scholar who produced one of the earliest English translations of the Bible directly from the original Hebrew and Greek texts. His translation, known as the "Matthew Bible," heavily influenced the King James Version of the Bible.
Another notable figure was Tobie Puente (1923-2000), an American musician, songwriter, and bandleader of Puerto Rican descent, widely known as "The King of Latin Music." He is credited with popularizing Latin dance music and helping to bring it into the mainstream, particularly with his renditions of "Oye Como Va" and "Ran Kan Kan."
In the realm of literature, Tobie Nathan (born 1948) is a French writer, ethnopsychiatrist, and professor known for his work in the field of ethnopsychiatry, which explores the relationship between culture and mental health. His notable works include "L'Influence qui guérit" (The Healing Influence) and "Psychanalyse Païenne" (Pagan Psychoanalysis).
Tobie Hatfield (born 1955) is an American designer and engineer who has worked for Nike since 1981. He is best known for designing innovative and iconic sneakers, including the Air Max line and the Air Jordan series in collaboration with Michael Jordan.
Finally, Tobie Puttock (born 1971) is an Australian chef and television personality, known for his appearances on various cooking shows and his advocacy for sustainable and ethical food practices. He has authored several cookbooks, including "Cook in a Book: Trail Food" and "The Kitchen Pantry Cookbook."
People
Tobie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tobie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Tobie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tobie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,873 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tobie 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 182,998 US residents.
Is Tobie a common name?
We classify Tobie as "Rare". It ranks above 93.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,310 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tobie most popular?
The single biggest year for Tobie was 1975, when 102 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tobie is about 45 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tobie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,820 people with the name Tobie, or 0.60 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,078 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 Tobie 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 Tobie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Tobie on both sides of the split. Of the 1,820 people counted with this name, 664 were male (36.5%) and 1,156 were female (63.5%). 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 Tobie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tobie is White at 79.0%. The next largest groups are Black (8.5%) and Hispanic (4.5%). 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 Tobie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tobie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.0% (1,438 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 Tobie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tobie a female name?
Yes, 59.8% of people registered as Tobie 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 Tobie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tobie 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 Tobie 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 people are called Tobie?
You can see how many people share the name Tobie on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.