Kobe - Meaning of Kobe

What does Kobe mean?

[ 2 syll. ko-be, kob-e ] The baby boy name Kobe is pronounced KOWBiy- †.

1: Kobe's origin is African-Swahili, and its use, English and Japanese. It is derived literally from the word kobe which is of the meaning 'tortoise'. Variants of Kobe include Coby, Jakobe (English), Ko, Kobee (English), Kobey (English), and Kobi.

2: Kobe is used chiefly in the Japanese language and its origin is also Japanese. Its meaning is from the element 'kobe'. The first name is derived from the name of the city of Kobe in Japan, noted for its quality Kobe beef. The name is well-known from the basketball player Kobe Bryant (1978-), whose name was inspired by the culinary dish.

In addition, Kobe is a variant of Jacob (Dutch, English, German, and Scandinavian) in the English and Japanese languages.

Kobe is a fairly popular baby name for boys. The name's popularity jumped from the 1990s up to the 2000s; before that, it was of infrequent use only. At the modest height of its usage in 2001, 0.075% of baby boys were given the name Kobe. Its ranking then was #222. The baby name has since experienced a fall in popularity. In 2011, its usage was 0.027% and its ranking #477, but it was nonetheless the 2nd most popular after Jacob, within all boy names in its group. In 2011, its use outnumbered Kobe's by 37 times.

Baby names that sound like Kobe include Kobee, Kobey, Kobi, Koby, Cobi, Coby, Kaepo, Kafey, Kaffi, Kafi, Kafie, Kafy, Kapo, Kappey, Kappi, Kappie, Kappy, Kaseib, Kashief, and Kashif.

† English pronunciation for Kobe: K as in "key (K.IY)" ; OW as in "oak (OW.K)" ; B as in "be (B.IY)" ; IY as in "eat (IY.T)"

A famous person named Kobe is Basketball Player Kobe Bryant, born 23 August 1978, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.