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Bobbette vs Bobbye

American parents have registered 3,269 Bobbyes since 1880, against 667 Bobbettes. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Bobbette Bobbye

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 80 years in which either name was published, Bobbye for 66 years and Bobbette for 14 years. The lead changed hands 6 times.

Side by side

  Bobbette Bobbye
Total US births 6673,269
Most in one year 31162
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 4701,200
Median age today 6477
Peak year 19621931
Best rank 2,113th girls530th girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19201911
Girls / boys 667 / 03,172 / 97

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 Bobbettes are over 64. 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: Bobbette and Bobbye.