He’s quasi-Biblical, sort-of-superheroic and vaguely brainy, too.
Thanks to Fran and Francis for suggesting Tobias as our Baby Name of the Day.
The Bible isn’t the rigid, unchanging collection of writings that we sometimes assume. Books have been included and booted over the centuries, and different faith traditions don’t always agree. So it is with the Book of Tobit. Catholics say yay, but most Protestants give him the miss.
Tobit’s tale is set in the eight century BC, in Nineveh. Tobit is father to Tobias; both names are derived from the element tobih – my good. The book involves travel and marriage and wrestling with demons. The angel Raphael secretly assists Tobias as he completes his tasks. Renaissance artists were inspired by the story, and you’ll find a handful of men named Tobias throughout the centuries, including a fourth century saint.
But to talk about Tobias, we really need to talk about Toby. While Tobias has never ranked higher than #475, and today stands at a relatively obscure #506, Toby fared well in the 1970s, peaking at #190 in 1975. In 2009, he came in at a distant #628, but together Tobias and Toby make for a vaguely familiar choice.
Fictional bearers of the name have included the uncle in 1923′s Tristram Shandy, as well as small screen characters like:
- Toby Flenderson, the long-suffering HR guy on The Office;
- Supersmart, idealistic Toby Ziegler on The West Wing;
- The dysfunctional Arrested Development family’s disgraced doctor turned aspiring actor Tobias Fünke;
The baby brother stolen by goblins in 1986′s Labyrinth was called Toby, as was the child actor who played the part.
JRR Tolkein named a hobbit Tobold in The Lord of the Rings. There’s also Tobin, sometimes listed as a pet form of Tobias and sometimes viewed as a separate surname related to the Irish Tóibín, derived from place name Saint Aubin in Brittany.
Toby has also taken a turn as a girl’s name, probably thanks to Toby Wing. Even though her acting career never took off, Miss Wing – born Martha – was well-known in the 1930s, and even rated a star on Hollywood Boulevard. Her stage name, it is said, was borrowed from a horse. The name appeared in the US Top 1000 for girls as late as 1975.
But say Toby today, and one of two figures likely come to mind.
First, there’s Tobey Maguire, born Tobias, the actor better known as Peter Parker and his alter ego, Spider-Man. Then there’s Toby Keith, who scored his first hit with “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” but has done quite well as a country music star since the 1990s.
You might also think of author Tobias Wolff. His 1989 memoir This Boy’s Life was adapted for the big screen in 1993. Leonardo DiCaprio was the lead, but Tobey Maguire had a small role.
File Tobias as one of those names that is both perfectly ordinary and nicely quirky. You won’t shock anyone by choosing Tobias for your son, but neither will they expect it. Despite the handful of women named Toby, he manages to remain masculine, fitting in just fine with 21st century boys called Jayden and Isaiah.
my first baby name of the day suggestion and i had no idea it was biblical! thanks for covering it
. tobias is the name of my second son and it did take the west wing connection to get my husband to agree to it. i do think the name is slightly more common in england than in the states but i’ve never met a female toby
I’m really not a fan of any Tob- name. The sound is extremely unattractive to my ears. I have a grating second cousin named Toby, and he doesn’t exactly help.
Love Tobias. So handsome!
I’m frequently a fan of ends-in-s names for guys and this name’s no different. For me, it has the right combination of quirky and familiar combined. I’m not as big a fan of Toby, however. The only Toby I’ve ever known was a girl, and while she is a wonderful person, knowing her has put the name in gender limbo for me.
I knew a girl Toby, too, a counselor at my Girl Scout camp. That makes her around the right age to be one of those 1960s era Tobys … sort of fit with Jodi, I guess.
I’m not really a fan of Tobias, especially with the nickname Toby. I have a female cousin named Tobey, so it sounds really feminine to me.
Not a favorite for me, but I’d love to meet a little Toby. I was surprised to learn that it’s also a girl’s name.
The first Toby I think of is from The West Wing, but I also remember a critical scene from Roots, the miniseries. Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton, later John Amos) is reluctant to accept his slave name, Toby. Years later, when his daughter Kizzy (Leslie Uggams) finds his wooden grave marker, she scratches out the name Toby and corrects the marker to read Kunta Kinte.
That’s right! Maybe not a great association for Toby …
Love it love it love it. I didn’t know that it was strictly a Catholic name though?
What do we think? Would brothers Raphael and Tobias be too much?
I wouldn’t say it is strictly Catholic, though there is a pint-sized Tobias in Clio’s (Catholic, run-by-a-nun) child center at the moment. It’s just that he’s only Biblical if you’re Catholic. Pretty much everybody else has dismissed the tale.
Raphael and Tobias is a GREAT sibset. And honestly? There’s a family at my church with kids name Gregory, Gloria and Regina. I don’t think most people realize how VERY religious those names are.
Don’t forget the street urchin/orphan “Toby” in Sweeney Todd. That’s the name connection for me:)
I know a couple young Toby’s here in England, and I wish they were the nicknames for a more properly named Tobias.
I really like Tobias, and Tobiah. And I also like the nickname Toby. I would use it in a heartbeat!
The first fictional Tobias which came to my mind was Tobias Snape, father of Severus Snape of the Harry Potter series. I do like the name. For me, it has more of a Puritan vibe than a Catholic one.
I think that’s one HP name I’d missed completely – thanks for the info, EK. And yeah, I do get that – Tobias, Josiah, Ezra … he’d fit right in with all of those names.
Tobias is kind of my “default” name. Whenever anyone spontaneously decides to name a squirrel or a frog or a stuffed animal or some other creature I nearly always say “Tobias!”, since it for some reason is the first name to pop into my head. I think it’s a decent name. Doesn’t stand out very much but isn’t very common either.
I really like Tobias / Toby. It’s on my list of favourites. Husband doesn’t like it though – he says Toby is a dog’s name.
It also gets bonus points from me for being one of the trains in ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’. (Although not such a cool looking one.)
I also like Tobin – but don’t think I could ever use it because it sounds like Toe-Bin and “bin” is the word I use for “trash can” so that makes it all icky sounding.
I had no idea that the name is in the Catholic Bible!
I think I like Toby better than Tobias, but Toby feels like it might need a ‘more formal’ version and then the ‘bias’ ending does sound a little too much like the word ‘biased’ to me.
I still really like the name though.
The first thing I think of when I hear it is Tobias Funke, cut off wearing, blue man wannabe, anal-rapist (analysist-therapist), never-nude character on Arrested Development.
Other than that association, it’s a lovely name
I like Tobias, but have nixed it for a son because I think Toni and Toby would be too much under one roof
I love Tobias! Great post. I love Tobin as a nn and Toby is growing on me. Thank you for covering it!
I like Tobias. It’s not my favorite ends-in-S boys’ name (and you know I have a thing for those ends-in-S boys’ names). But it’s nice.
I’ve actually met two little babies named Tobias recently. One was a newborn at church, and I’m not sure what his siblings were called. The other was the boy half of boy-girl twins: Tobias and Teagan.
While Tobias is not in the Protestant Bible, Tobiah is… he appears in the book of Nehemiah as a bad guy who tries to sabotage Nehemiah’s building of the wall around Jerusalem.
One other small screen Tobias worth mentioning is the FBI agent on NCIS. You’ve got to love those character names… Jethro and Tobias. Now wouldn’t those be handsome brothers?
I honestly don’t associate Tobias with Catholicism at all. I live in a culturally Catholic country and Tobias is has never been common – in fact, like most Old Testament names, it’s still scarcely used.
I think prefer just Toby – I tend to go for simpler English traditional forms over Latin or Biblical ones: Cecily over Cecilia, Lucy over Lucia, Jude over Judah, etc.
I love Tobias for a name. Tobit is my favourite book in the bible so its always held a special place for me. But then my sister pointed out it would be a good name for a gay prostitute (to buy ass) and its kinda tainted it. Now i’m moving toward Tobiah. Its a little bit more rare, but still has the same feel to it. Now i just need to convince my husband.
Believe it or not, the first association I have with Tobias is a rather round black and white piebald unicorn from a book series that I was fond of when I was little. It brings warm fuzzy feelings to this name for me
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I’ve recently become obsessed with Toby, just Toby. I think it’s one of those nickname names that has enough oomph to stand alone! Sure, maybe it’s been used for girls, but it’s got this really friendly boy-next-door kind of vibe about it that I really love. Tobias is fine, but it sounds too much like Eliza, my girl favorite, to really ever work for me – plus, Toby versus Tobias? Friendly, yet slightly jaunty Toby always wins for me! He’s a little bit preppy, a lot perky, and even maybe a little pretty. Ideal.
I was just noticing that several of my favorites are technically nicknames! Eliza, Toby, and Jude. When you think of those as shortened forms of Elizabeth, Tobias, and Judah, you have a very different set, huh? I like “my” slightly casual, more approachable, but still quite classic set, personally, though I can’t say anything bad about the longer forms!
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