Kolbe
Kolbe is given to both girls and boys: 9 girls and 80 boys were given it in 2025 (#10,522 among girls’ names and #1,939 among boys’, #3,848 among all names counting both); 1,892 Americans have been recorded with it since 1989 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,870 Americans named Kolbe and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 7 and 24.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kolbe by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kolbe?
#1,939 among boys’ names, 2025
Kolbe rose from #2,063 in 2015 to #1,939 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 36.0 to 46.8 per million.
110 babies in 2001, the peak
Kolbe peaked in 2001, when 110 babies were given it (102 boys, #1,292 among boys’ names). The 89 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 81% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 80 | #1,939 | 46.8 |
| 2024 | 82 | #1,929 | 47.6 |
| 2023 | 85 | #1,871 | 49.7 |
| 2022 | 67 | #2,180 | 38.4 |
| 2021 | 63 | #2,241 | 36.0 |
| 2020 | 59 | #2,309 | 34.2 |
| 2019 | 65 | #2,181 | 36.2 |
| 2018 | 52 | #2,491 | 28.6 |
| 2017 | 46 | #2,696 | 24.9 |
| 2016 | 52 | #2,455 | 27.4 |
Every recorded year (37)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 69 | #2,063 | 36.0 |
| 2014 | 61 | #2,219 | 31.8 |
| 2013 | 49 | #2,503 | 25.9 |
| 2012 | 50 | #2,506 | 26.4 |
| 2011 | 43 | #2,774 | 22.6 |
| 2010 | 59 | #2,225 | 30.8 |
| 2009 | 56 | #2,335 | 28.2 |
| 2008 | 45 | #2,738 | 22.1 |
| 2007 | 57 | #2,291 | 27.5 |
| 2006 | 38 | #2,954 | 18.5 |
| 2005 | 35 | #2,987 | 17.5 |
| 2004 | 52 | #2,222 | 26.2 |
| 2003 | 78 | #1,620 | 39.5 |
| 2002 | 80 | #1,548 | 41.2 |
| 2001 | 102 | #1,292 | 52.5 |
| 2000 | 68 | #1,691 | 34.6 |
| 1999 | 54 | #1,835 | 28.1 |
| 1998 | 52 | #1,887 | 27.2 |
| 1997 | 26 | #2,941 | 13.8 |
| 1996 | 26 | #2,873 | 13.7 |
| 1995 | 13 | #4,668 | 6.8 |
| 1994 | 11 | #5,279 | 5.7 |
| 1993 | 12 | #4,874 | 6.1 |
| 1992 | 6 | #7,988 | 3.0 |
| 1991 | 14 | #4,127 | 6.9 |
| 1990 | 10 | #5,205 | 4.9 |
| 1989 | 8 | #5,949 | 4.0 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kolbe a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,892 Americans recorded as Kolbe, 4% are girls and 96% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kolbe: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kolbe, and how old are they?
1,870 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,892 Americans ever recorded as Kolbe. The median Kolbe alive today is 15 years old; half are between 7 and 24.
The 2020 Census counted 1,437 people named Kolbe (113 women and girls, 1,324 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,434 born in the U.S. The Census count matches that prediction to within 1%.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 96 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 905 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 866 |
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 Kolbe born?
The states with the most babies named Kolbe are Texas, Ohio and California, with 58% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
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 Kolbe 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 6 names spelled alike, given to 73,983 babies since 1880, Kolbe is the third most given (2.6% of them). In 2025 it was given to 89 of their 817 babies (11%), again the third 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 Kolbe
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 Kolbe and names like it
- Compare Kolbe and ColbyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKolbe peaked in 2001.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kolbe since 1910.
- The top names of 2001The year the most babies were named Kolbe.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kolbe alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.