Toby
A masculine name derived from the Middle English personal name Tobias, meaning "God is good".
Name Census estimates that about 36,452 living Americans carry the first name Toby. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 80.7% of registrations being male. The average person named Toby today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Toby births was 1975 (1,349 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Toby. 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 Toby with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
36K
~ 1 in 9,403 Americans
Peak year
1975
1,349 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,104
Tracked since 1882
Census
Toby in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 34,016 people with the first name Toby, which placed it at #1,159 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
#1,159
National first-name rank
People counted
34K
34,016 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
11.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Toby
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Toby is White at 81.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.6%) and Black (4.6%). 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 Toby 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 Toby at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.3% · 27,641
- Hispanic or Latino5.6% · 1,901
- Black or African American4.6% · 1,548
- Two or more races3.8% · 1,299
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 1,223
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 404
Gender
Gender distribution for Toby
Toby leans heavily male at 80.7% of total registrations, but 8,284 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Toby as a male name
- Ranked #1,104 in 2024
- 194 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1975 (1,191 births)
Toby as a female name
- Ranked #2,004 in 2024
- 98 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1941 (170 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Toby leans strongly male. 28,174 people counted with this name were male (82.8%), compared with 5,833 female bearers (17.2%).
Popularity
Toby: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Toby from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 10,851 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
Toby 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 Toby during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tobys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 49 states and territories. New York, Texas, California recorded the most babies named Toby, while District of Columbia, Vermont, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 725 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Toby
The name Toby is an English diminutive form of the biblical Hebrew name Tobiah, meaning "God is good" or "the goodness of God." It originated in ancient Israel and is derived from the Hebrew words "tov," meaning good, and "Yah," a shortened form of the name of God.
The earliest recorded use of the name Toby can be found in the Apocryphal book of Tobit, which tells the story of a pious Israelite named Tobit who is blinded but regains his sight through the help of an angel named Raphael. The book is believed to have been written around the 3rd century BCE.
In the Middle Ages, the name Toby became popular in England, where it was often used as a nickname for Tobiah. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Toby was in the 13th century, when a man named Toby of Coventry was mentioned in historical records.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Toby. One of the most famous was Toby Philpot (1616-1676), an English clergyman and religious writer who was a vocal opponent of the Puritans during the English Civil War.
Another notable Toby was Toby Smollett (1721-1771), a Scottish novelist and satirist who is best known for his picaresque novels, including "The Adventures of Roderick Random" and "The Expedition of Humphry Clinker."
In the 19th century, Toby Jug became a popular name for a type of ceramic drinking vessel modeled after a jovial, pot-bellied man. The origins of the Toby Jug are unclear, but it is believed to have been inspired by the character of Toby Philpot.
Other famous individuals named Toby include Toby Jones (born 1966), an English actor known for his roles in films like "Truman Capote" and "The Hunger Games," and Toby Keith (born 1961), an American country music singer and songwriter.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Toby in literature can be found in the works of William Shakespeare, who used the name in several of his plays, including "The Merry Wives of Windsor" and "Twelfth Night."
Overall, the name Toby has a rich history that spans centuries and encompasses a diverse range of individuals, from religious figures to writers, actors, and musicians.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Toby
People
Toby + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Toby 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
Toby: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Toby?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 36,452 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Toby 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 9,403 US residents.
Is Toby a common name?
We classify Toby as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 42,891 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Toby most popular?
The single biggest year for Toby was 1975, when 1,349 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Toby is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Toby in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 34,016 people with the name Toby, or 11.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,159 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 Toby 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 Toby?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Toby leans strongly male. 28,174 people counted with this name were male (82.8%), compared with 5,833 female bearers (17.2%). 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 Toby?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Toby is White at 81.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.6%) and Black (4.6%). 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 Toby most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Toby in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.3% (27,641 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 Toby in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Toby a male name?
Yes, 80.7% of people registered as Toby 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 Toby still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Toby 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 Toby 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 have the name Toby?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.