Kobe
Kobe was given to 578 boys in 2025, #519 among boys’ names; 23,126 Americans have been recorded with it since 1989 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 22,800 Americans named Kobe and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 6 and 24.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kobe by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kobe mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kobe is “a male given name.”
From Japanese 神(こう)戸(べ) (Kōbe).
/ˈkoʊˌbi/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kobe?
#519 among boys’ names, 2025
Kobe rose from #594 in 2015 to #519 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.24 to 0.34 per 1,000.
1,575 babies in 2020, the peak
Kobe peaked in 2020, when 1,575 babies were given it (1,518 boys, #239 among boys’ names). The 617 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 39% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 578 | #519 | 0.34 |
| 2024 | 790 | #410 | 0.46 |
| 2023 | 755 | #421 | 0.44 |
| 2022 | 851 | #381 | 0.49 |
| 2021 | 1,117 | #298 | 0.64 |
| 2020 | 1,518 | #239 | 0.88 |
| 2019 | 507 | #556 | 0.28 |
| 2018 | 481 | #575 | 0.26 |
| 2017 | 533 | #531 | 0.29 |
| 2016 | 583 | #513 | 0.31 |
Every recorded year (32)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 465 | #594 | 0.24 |
| 2014 | 524 | #532 | 0.27 |
| 2013 | 553 | #494 | 0.29 |
| 2012 | 526 | #506 | 0.28 |
| 2011 | 555 | #477 | 0.29 |
| 2010 | 645 | #428 | 0.34 |
| 2009 | 687 | #419 | 0.35 |
| 2008 | 730 | #403 | 0.36 |
| 2007 | 573 | #471 | 0.28 |
| 2006 | 469 | #540 | 0.23 |
| 2005 | 444 | #544 | 0.22 |
| 2004 | 625 | #416 | 0.31 |
| 2003 | 1,213 | #265 | 0.61 |
| 2002 | 1,392 | #244 | 0.72 |
| 2001 | 1,552 | #222 | 0.80 |
| 2000 | 1,432 | #238 | 0.73 |
| 1999 | 860 | #323 | 0.45 |
| 1998 | 1,104 | #263 | 0.58 |
| 1997 | 350 | #553 | 0.19 |
| 1996 | 87 | #1,269 | 0.05 |
| 1995 | 9 | #6,193 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 5 | #8,628 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kobe a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 23,126 Americans recorded as Kobe, 3% are girls and 97% boys. In 2025 it went to 39 girls and 578 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kobe: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kobe, and how old are they?
22,800 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 23,126 Americans ever recorded as Kobe. The median Kobe alive today is 17 years old; half are between 6 and 24.
The 2020 Census counted 15,211 people named Kobe (321 women and girls, 14,890 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 17,436 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 98 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 13,100 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 9,580 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Kobe born?
The states with the most babies named Kobe are Texas, California and Florida, with 28% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 62 | #572 | 0.8× |
| California | 60 | #514 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 31 | #564 | 0.8× |
| New York | 27 | #575 | 0.6× |
| Georgia | 25 | #447 | 1.3× |
| North Carolina | 25 | #440 | 1.1× |
| Ohio | 22 | #488 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 22 | #470 | 0.7× |
| Indiana | 22 | #346 | 1.1× |
| Michigan | 20 | #433 | 1.0× |
Where Kobe is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kobe is most over-represented in Mississippi: since 1989 it was given 1.7 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Kobe with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 46,734 babies since 1880, Kobe is the most given (49% of them). In 2025 it was given to 617 of their 968 babies (64%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Kobe
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Kobe and names like it
- Compare Kobe and CobyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sKobe peaked in 2020.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kobe since 1910.
- The top names of 2020The year the most babies were named Kobe.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kobe alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.