Meaning and background
The story behind Bobby
Bobby is an English diminutive of Bob, and the reference records both American and British vowel patterns. It therefore belongs to an established personal-name family rather than needing a new meaning invented for its double consonant or final y. The spelling Bobbie is also documented as a variant. For a dog, Bobby has the advantage of already being the familiar form: there is no long version that everyone must agree to shorten. If another household member is Bob or Robbie, compare the spoken calls together before deciding which form is sufficiently distinct for you.
- Origin
- English diminutive of Bob; Bobbie is a documented spelling variant. Source
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Everyday moments“Bobby, come here!”
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About Bobby
Recorded as a dog’s name
Bobby appears in 54 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/bɑbi/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the first syllable in the recorded US readings.
View dictionary notation
/bɑbi/ · primary stress on syllable 1B AA1 B IY0
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
Gender association: NYC licence-period records. Any dog can use this name.
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.