How popular is the baby name Toby in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Toby.
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The Disney Channel sitcom Good Luck Charlie isn’t just helping to popularize the already-trendy girl name Charlie, but it seems to have single-handedly brought back the girl name Teddy. (On the show, the two sisters in the Duncan family are Charlotte, nicknamed “Charlie,” and Teddy.)
Will Good Luck Charlie now have a similar influence on the baby name Toby?
In December of 2011, Disney announced that the family in the sitcom would be welcoming a fifth child. Fans were given a 2-week window in which to vote for their favorite baby name via the show’s official webpage. These were the choices:
Bo
Erika
Bobby Jr.
Jenny
Jonah
Mallory
Noah
Sydney
Toby
Talia
The baby, a boy, arrived during the episode that aired on June 24, 2012. He was born in an ice cream truck and given the name Toby (which had received nearly 26 million votes).
2011: 291 baby boys & 61 baby girls with the name Toby
2010: 358 baby boys & 50 baby girls with the name Toby
2009: 396 baby boys & 56 baby girls with the name Toby
2008: 440 baby boys & 53 baby girls with the name Toby
2007: 461 baby boys & 51 baby girls with the name Toby
Do you think the popular sitcom could turn this trend around?
Update, 2020: The name Toby ended up rising in usage in both 2012 and 2013 before continuing its downward trajectory. The series itself ended in early 2014.
In late 1976, Alex Haley’s best-selling novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family was published.
The book — which tells a sweeping, multi-generational tale that lasts from the mid-1700s to the mid-1800 — begins with the story of Kunta Kinte, a Mandinka teenager who was captured in Africa, transported via slave ship to North America, and sold to a Virginia plantation owner.
In January of 1977, an 8-episode miniseries based on the novel aired on television for 8 consecutive nights (on ABC).
The televised version of Roots was wildly popular, earning 9 Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe, a Peabody, and some of the highest Nielsen ratings of all time.
It also had an unprecedented influence on baby names, inspiring thousands African-American parents to name their babies after Roots characters and actors. Below are some examples.
Kizzy, Levar, Kunta & Kinte
According to the U.S. baby name data, the top debut names of 1977 were Kizzy and Levar.
Kizzy came from the character Kizzy, daughter of Kunta Kinte, who was featured during the middle episodes of the series.
1979: 269 baby girls named Kizzy [rank: 648th]
1978: 456 baby girls named Kizzy [rank: 439th]
1977: 1,115 baby girls named Kizzy [rank: 223rd] [debut]
1976: unlisted
1975: unlisted
So far, Kizzy’s 1977 debut is the highest baby name debut ever.
During the scene in which the newborn Kizzy is named, Kunta Kinte says, “Girl, your name is Kizzy. […] Your name means ‘stay put,’ but it don’t mean ‘stay a slave.’ It will never mean that!”
Here’s how one Florida couple, who welcomed a baby girl in early 1977, decided to name their daughter Kizzy:
“I identified with Kunta Kinte, and I thought the name Kizzy was a way I could express that,” said Willie Parker of Carol City, a Miami suburb.
His wife, Carrie, initially wanted to name their new daughter Nicole. But Parker said he was especially moved by the scene from the television series in which Kinte names his child and then raises her to the stars and tells her to behold the only thing greater than herself. So, he persuaded his wife to name their child Kizzy.
Levar came from actor LeVar Burton, who played the young version of protagonist Kunta Kinte in the first two episodes of the miniseries.
1979: 175 baby boys named Levar [rank: 645th]
1978: 254 baby boys named Levar [rank: 512th]
1977: 523 baby boys named Levar [rank: 343rd] [debut]
1976: unlisted
1975: unlisted
The names Lavar, Levarr, Lavarr and Lavare also got a boost in 1977. (The last three were debuts.)
Kunta not only debuted in 1977, but it popped into the top 1,000 for the first and only time that year as well.
1979: 16 baby boys named Kunta
1978: 52 baby boys named named Kunta
1977: 215 baby boys named Kunta [rank: 572nd] [debut]
1976: unlisted
1975: unlisted
Kinte also reached the top 1,000 for the first and only time in 1977, after debuting the year before.
1979: 6 baby boys named Kinte
1978: 38 baby boys named Kinte
1977: 104 baby boys named Kinte [rank: 839th]
1976: 5 baby boys named Kinte [debut]
1975: unlisted
The New York Times reported in March of 1977 that a young couple from Harlem, John and Nefhertiti Reid, had welcomed a baby boy on February 18 and named him Kunta Kinte Reid. He was “one of 20 newborn black boys and girls in New York City last month who were given the names Kunta Kinte or Kizzy.”
Officials in the health departments of several cities reported that 15 babies last month had been named Kunta Kinte or Kizzy in Los Angeles, 10 in Detroit and eight in Atlanta. In Cleveland, male and female twins were named after the two characters.
These names, already seeing enough usage nationally to appear in the U.S. baby name data, were influenced by Roots as well. Two got a boost, but the third did not…
Though it did not return to the data when Roots aired, “[o]ne family in Detroit named their child Vereen, apparently for actor Ben Vereen, who in the television show portrayed Kizzy’s son, Chicken George.”
The curious name Jareth first popped up in the U.S. baby name data in 1986:
1988: 51 baby boys named Jareth
1987: 50 baby boys named Jareth
1986: 10 baby boys named Jareth [debut]
1985: unlisted
1984: unlisted
What put it there?
Jim Henson’s goblin-filled musical fantasy film Labyrinth (1986).
The movie’s main character was a teenage girl named Sarah (played by Jennifer Connelly). While babysitting her cranky baby brother Toby, she “teasingly wishe[d] the goblins would take him away.” The problem? Her wish came true.
Jareth the Goblin King (played by David Bowie) explained to Sarah that the baby was now in his castle, which was at the center of a massive, otherworldly labyrinth. She could have her brother back…but only if she could find her way to the castle.
“You have 13 hours in which to solve the labyrinth before your baby brother becomes one of us forever.”
I don’t know which of the Labyrinth‘s creators (Jim Henson? Brian Froud? Terry Jones?) came up with the name Jareth, or how it was coined. Perhaps it was based on the Welsh name Gareth, or on the Biblical name Jared. (Or both?)
I discovered this very early case of a male name becoming a female name while reading about medieval English pet names that end with -ot and -et (e.g. Cissot for Cecilia, Ibbot for Isabella):
But the girl-name that made most mark was originally a boy’s name, Theobald. Tibbe was the nick form, and Tibbot the pet name. Very speedily it became the property of the female sex, such entries as Tibot Fitz-piers ending in favour of Tibota Foliot. After the year 1300 Tib, or Tibet, is invariably feminine.
Tib reminds me of Toby, another male nickname used for girls. Toby, short for Tobias, was more popular as a girl name than as a boy name in the U.S. for most of the early 20th century (1910s-1940s).
Source: Bardsley, Charles Wareing Endell. Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature. London: Chatto & Windus, 1897.
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