Bobby

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled בוב in IL Israel, FR France.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 22 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Bobby is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name114K records spelled Bobby6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Philippines, Brazil, Mexico

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written Bôbby

• Hindi given name35K records spelled Bobby5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, United Kingdom, Canada

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu, Sinhala

  Also written Bóbby, Bôbby

• Indonesian given name24K records spelled Bobby5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, Philippines, United States, Malaysia

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written 'Bobby, Bȯbby, Bőbbý

• Polish given name10K records spelled Bobby87 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Poland, Czechia, Bulgaria

  Languages: Polish, Russian, Czech

  Also written Bob, Боб, Bobbie, Bobi, Боби

• Greek given name7.4K records spelled Bobby3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Greece, United States, United Kingdom

  Also written Μπόμπι, Μπομπι

64 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Bobby is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, A police officer.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Swedish, Bobby är en engelsk smekform till → Robert. Med stavningen Bobbie används det även som kvinnonamn.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In French, Variante anglaise de Bob, diminutif de Robert.

  as a name·Dictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

• In English, Diminutive of Bob/Robert

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• In French, Diminutif de Robert.

  as a name·Dictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 124 years between 1900–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Bobby Robsonb. 1933GBEnglish association football player and manager (1933-2009)
• Bobby Charltonb. 1937GBEnglish association football player and manager (1937–2023)
• Bobby Driscollb. 1937USAmerican actor (1937–1968)
• Bobby Hullb. 1939CACanadian ice hockey player (1939–2023)
• Bobby Mooreb. 1941GBEnglish association football player (1941–1993)
• Bobby Orrb. 1948CACanadian ice hockey player
• Bobby Brownb. 1969USAmerican R&B singer (born 1969)
• Bobby Cannavaleb. 1970USAmerican actor (born 1970)
• Bobby Jindalb. 1971USAmerican politician and 55th governor of Louisiana (born 1971)
• Bobby Lashleyb. 1976USAmerican professional wrestler and mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 564 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Bobby?

We estimate roughly 163 thousand people bear Bobby (counting its spellings and scripts) across 6 countries in our records.

In which country does Bobby have the most bearers?

We estimate about 159 thousand people bear Bobby in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled bobby.

How common is Bobby compared with other names?

In the United States, Bobby is the 261st most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.

Is Bobby a male or female name?

Bobby is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Bobby mean?

Recorded meaning: Teutonic; diminutive of Robert, famous, bright fame