Humanverse

Bobbye vs Bobette

American parents have registered 3,269 Bobbyes since 1880, against 1,464 Bobettes. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Bobbye 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

Of the 80 years in which either name was published, Bobbye for 57 years and Bobette for 23 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Bobbye Bobette
Total US births 3,2691,464
Most in one year 16255
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 1,200960
Median age today 7769
Peak year 19311954
Best rank 530th girls1,344th girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19111915
Girls / boys 3,172 / 971,464 / 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 Bobbyes alive today are over 77; half the Bobettes are over 69. That is 8 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: Bobbye and Bobette.