Kobe
A boys’ name with no widely documented etymology — one syllable, given to 112 babies a year in England and Wales.
How Kobe has moved
View as table
| Year | US rank |
|---|---|
| 2015 | #593 |
| 2016 | #512 |
| 2017 | #531 |
| 2018 | #574 |
| 2019 | #556 |
| 2020 | #239 |
| 2021 | #298 |
| 2022 | #381 |
| 2023 | #418 |
| 2024 | #409 |
| 2025 | #519 |
Kobe by the numbers
In 2025, 112 babies in England and Wales were named Kobe. In the US, 544 were, though that figure is from 2017, the most recent full year we hold.
It is used at about the same rate on both sides of the Atlantic.
Its American peak was 1,552 babies in 2001, making it a 2000s name.
At its height, in 2000, about 1 in 1,500 American boys born that year was called Kobe.
What we can tell you about Kobe
Not every name has a meaning to trace. Plenty are coined rather than inherited — invented outright, blended from two names, or respelled from an older one — and where we cannot find an etymology we can stand behind, we would rather say so than make one up. What follows comes from the birth records themselves.
Spelled almost the same
Other names in the records within a letter or two of Kobe. Close spellings are not always related names, but they are usually worth seeing together.
- Kobysupplanter; a form of Jacob or Jacoby60 in England and Wales (2025)
- Kobisupplanter; a form of Jacob72 in England and Wales (2025)
- Kobiesupplanter; a form of Jacob77 in England and Wales (2025)
- Kolbedark settlement; a modern respelling of Colby53 in the US (2017)
- Kole313 in the US (2017)
- Kove11 in England and Wales (2025)
Sounds like Kobe
Names that are said the same way as Kobe, however they are written. Sounding alike does not mean they share a history.
- Cobe3 in England and Wales (2025)
Names about as common as Kobe
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