Humanverse

Bobbe vs Bobbie

American parents have registered 107,049 Bobbies since 1880, against 567 Bobbes. Bobbie is still ahead, with 96 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Bobbe against Bobbie, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Bobbe Bobbie

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Bobbie has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1883 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1912, when Bobbe had 5 and Bobbie had 126.

Side by side

  Bobbe Bobbie
Total US births 567107,049
Most in one year 262,850
Babies in 2025 under 596
Estimated living today 24060,000
Median age today 7663
Peak year 19321934
Best rank 1,488th girls110th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked2,064th
First recorded 19121883
Girls / boys 567 / 088,627 / 18,422

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Bobbes alive today are over 76; half the Bobbies are over 63. That is 13 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Bobbe and Bobbie.