Toby

Popularity Trends

The name Toby is the #1,195 most popular name of all time in the U.S. on a gender-neutral basis, with a total of 42,596 recorded births since 1882. This represents the 84.6% percentile of name popularity (more popular than 84.6% of all names). For boys, it ranks #610 (86.7% percentile) for all time with 34,411 births since 1882. For girls, it ranks #1,798 (68.5% percentile) for all time with 8,185 births since 1902.

Toby first appeared in U.S. birth records in 1882 (1882 for boys and 1902 for girls). Birth data for Toby is available in 125 out of the 142 years between 1882 and 2023 (121 years for boys and 119 years for girls). The Social Security Administration only reports birth data for years in which the name was given to at least five children of the same gender.

The name Toby has been given predominantly to boys, with 80.8% of all recorded births being male. In 2023, 61.8% of babies named Toby were boys.

For boys, Toby reached its peak popularity in 1975, achieving the 71.9% percentile (ranked #186) with 734 births per million. The name was most common in 1975, with 734 births per million (ranked 71.9% percentile). Since reaching a high point around 2016, the popularity of this name for boys has been declining. Currently, Toby ranks #759 for boys (16.7% percentile) with 86 births per million, which is 11.7% of its peak share of births.

For girls, Toby reached its peak popularity in 1941, achieving the 25.9% percentile (ranked #437) with 136 births per million. The name was most common in 1936, with 141 births per million (ranked 25.0% percentile). Since reaching a low point around 2018, the popularity of this name for girls has been increasing. Currently, Toby ranks #855 for girls (9.7% percentile) with 55 births per million, which is 39.3% of its peak share of births.

This chart shows the total number of births per million babies in each year for the name "Toby".

1882 2023 18822023

Key Statistics

Total Births

8,185

Peak Births

170

Peak Year

1941

First Recorded

1902

Peak Percentile

25.9%

Current Percentile

9.7%

Peak Rank

#437

Current Rank

#855

Female statistics

Total Births

34,411

Peak Births

1,191

Peak Year

1975

First Recorded

1882

Peak Percentile

71.9%

Current Percentile

16.7%

Peak Rank

#186

Current Rank

#759

Male statistics

Names That Sound Similar

These names exclude other spelling variations of this name. View all variations of Toby.

Names with Similar Spellings

These similar-looking names have spellings that are closest to the spelling of "Toby", in the sense that there are the fewest number of letter differences between the two spellings. These names exclude other spelling variations of this name. View all variations of Toby.

Names with Correlated Trends

These 12 names have popularity trends that correlate most strongly with the name Toby's popularity from 1880 to 2023 on a gender-neutral basis. Names may rise and fall in popularity for a variety of reasons, but correlations often reflect either changes in naming fashion or demographic shifts.

The correlation calculations in the table below ignore absolute popularity to show you names that move in similar directions as the name Toby at the same time. They also correct for changes in the overall birth rate over time. The 0-100% trend values are calculated by dividing each name's gender-neutral births per million by the peak births per million for that name.

The 12 names most strongly correlated to Toby range from Tobi at 93.3% correlation to Billi at 88.1% correlation, with an average correlation level of 89.8%. The most popular of these 12 most correlated names is Tanya with 117.2K births (100% girls) and the least popular is Kenric with 939 births (100% boys).

Toby's share of births peaked at 835.3 births per million in 1975 (141.1 for girls in 1941 and 734.1 for boys in 1975). It reached its lowest point of 17.8 births per million (2% of peak) in 1902. In 2023, the most recent period with data, the name Toby had 141.2 births per million, 17% of its peak popularity.

This chart shows how each name's popularity has changed over time relative to its peak (100%).

Tobi

3,480

93.32% (very strong)

Damon

67.9k

92.33% (very strong)

Tobey

2,439

91.23% (very strong)

Jamey

9,750

90.13% (very strong)

Lamont

24.1k

89.60% (very strong)

Christel

3,698

89.25% (very strong)

Darrick

8,110

89.23% (very strong)

Mendy

2,943

89.07% (very strong)

Kenric

939

88.77% (very strong)

Windy

4,969

88.54% (very strong)

Tanya

117.2k

88.42% (very strong)

Billi

1,745

88.09% (very strong)

About this table: Correlation values are shown as percentages from 0% to 100%, with each value accompanied by its strength (very weak to very strong). Higher percentages and stronger correlations indicate names that rise and fall together more closely in popularity. The strength labels are color-coded from gray (very weak) to green (very strong). The Trend column visualizes how each name's popularity has changed over time relative to its peak. Absolute correlation values are shown for simplicity (all correlations here are positive). The Total Births column is color-coded by gender distribution - blue shades for predominantly male names and red shades for predominantly female names, with purple hues indicating a more balanced gender distribution.

How to Pronounce Toby

Our model found one way to pronounce the name Toby. Click the play button under each pronunciation to hear it spoken aloud.

Our model is 100.0% confident that Toby is pronounced as TOH-bee, which has 2 syllables.

TOH-bee

100.0%

TOH-bee (2 syllables)

Verified

100.0% confidence

T OW1 B IY0

Possible Additional Pronunciations

If none of the pronunciations above sound right to you, could you please check whether any of these related pronunciations should be applied to the name Toby? These are pronunciations that other similar names use, but which are not currently associated with Toby. If you think any of these are valid pronunciations for Toby, please vote using the thumbs up button.

About Pronunciation Data

Our confidence scores estimate the likelihood that a particular pronunciation is the most correct for a given name spelling. These scores are derived from pronunciation dictionaries, manual verification, your feedback, and a fine-tuned large language model trained to generate name pronunciations.

For any given spelling, confidence scores across all identified pronunciations sum to 100%. However, these scores don't account for the possibility of valid pronunciations that our model hasn't identified.

The raw pronunciations shown (like T OW1 B IY0) use the ARPAbet phoneme system, a standardized way to represent English speech sounds. Each symbol represents a distinct sound in American English. Visit the ARPAbet Wikipedia page to learn more about these phonetic symbols.

Pronunciation audio is generated by an open source text to speech model that has been customized to adhere to pronunciations provided in ARPAbet format, but sometimes pronunciations that differ subtly will sound identical, particularly if the only difference is the level of emphasis on a syllable or a single vowel sound.

Made with ❤️ by Aaron J Becker

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