Humanverse

Bobbye vs Bobie

American parents have registered 3,269 Bobbyes since 1880, against 797 Bobies. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Bobbye against Bobie, 1880 to 2025 0 50 100 150 200 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Bobbye Bobie

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

Of the 84 years in which either name was published, Bobbye for 77 years and Bobie for 7 years. The lead changed hands 11 times.

Side by side

  Bobbye Bobie
Total US births 3,269797
Most in one year 16239
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 1,200280
Median age today 7769
Peak year 19311936
Best rank 530th girls2,032nd girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19111910
Girls / boys 3,172 / 97420 / 377

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 Bobbyes alive today are over 77; half the Bobies are over 69. That is 8 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: Bobbye and Bobie.