Humanverse

Bobbie vs Bobette

American parents have registered 107,049 Bobbies since 1880, against 1,464 Bobettes. Bobbie is still ahead, with 96 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Bobbie Bobette

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 1963, when Bobbie had 948 and Bobette had 39.

Side by side

  Bobbie Bobette
Total US births 107,0491,464
Most in one year 2,85055
Babies in 2025 96under 5
Estimated living today 60,000960
Median age today 6369
Peak year 19341954
Best rank 110th girls1,344th girls
Rank in 2025 2,064thunranked
First recorded 18831915
Girls / boys 88,627 / 18,4221,464 / 0

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 Bobettes alive today are over 69; half the Bobbies are over 63. That is 6 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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