Tobey vs Tobie
American parents have registered 2,456 Tobeys since 1880, against 2,321 Tobies. But in 2025 it was Tobie that was commoner, 9 babies to 8.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Tobey Tobie
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 112 years in which either name was published, Tobie for 62 years and Tobey for 50 years. The lead changed hands 36 times.
- 1886–1946 Tobie ahead, apart from 2 short spells
- 1947–1949 Tobey ahead
- 1950–1954 Tobie ahead
- 1955–1978 Tobey ahead, apart from 2 short spells
- 1982–1986 Tobie ahead
- 1987–1989 Tobey ahead
- 1993–1999 Tobie ahead
- 2000–2022 Tobey ahead, apart from one short spell
24 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Tobey | Tobie | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 2,456 | 2,321 |
| Most in one year | 106 | 102 |
| Babies in 2025 | 8 | 9 |
| Estimated living today | 2,200 | 1,900 |
| Median age today | 45 | 49 |
| Peak year | 2003 | 1975 |
| Best rank | 1,513th boys | 1,342nd girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 8,910th | 10,107th |
| First recorded | 1914 | 1886 |
| Girls / boys | 758 / 1,698 | 1,390 / 931 |
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 Tobies alive today are over 49; half the Tobeys are over 45. That is 4 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Tobey California (4.5×), Texas (2.5×), New York (2.0×)
- Tobie Texas (5.6×), California (2.9×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Both names abroad
Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.
| Country | Tobey | Tobie |
|---|---|---|
| England and Wales | 406 | 340 |
Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Tobey and Tobie.