Tobias
From Hebrew, where it means "god is good," carried toward Poland through German and Scandinavian use. It stays rare here: most Poles have never met a Tobias, and the few boys given it each year have been thinning since the 2010s.
Tobias Pronunciation
Tobias is pronounced TOB-yahs (/ˈtɔbjas/).
What Tobias means
Where Tobias comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Tobias comes from Hebrew. It joins tov, meaning good, with a shortened form of the divine name, so the whole reads "God is good." Polish keeps that sense in three plain words: bóg jest dobry.
The name traveled with a story. In the Book of Tobit, a young man named Tobias walks a long road with the archangel Raphael, catches a great fish, and comes home to cure his father's blindness. Readers in German and Scandinavian lands took to it early. Lutheran parish books in Denmark and Sweden record Tobias for generations, and the German astronomer Tobias Mayer charted the Moon in the eighteenth century.
On a Polish class register the spelling settles into Tobiasz, and the boy who carries it has his imieniny on the thirteenth of June or, more widely, in early November. The meaning underneath does not move. God is good.
How many people are named Tobias
1 in 30150 men in Poland is named Tobias. 708 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1108 among male names.
Tobias's popularity over time
5 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #967 among newborns. It is making a comeback after a low in 2004.
Where Tobias is most popular
Tobias is most popular in Opole, 486% above the national average (4 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Lower Silesian (+115%) and Silesian (+108%). It is least common in Lesser Poland and Masovian, 40% and 24% below average respectively.
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Opole4 boys born+486%
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Lower Silesian5 boys born+115%
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Silesian7 boys born+108%
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West Pomeranian2 boys born+60%
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Łódź3 boys born+60%
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Greater Poland3 boys born−6%
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Pomeranian2 boys born−8%
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Masovian4 boys born−24%
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Lesser Poland2 boys born−40%
Tobias as a middle name
Tobias is a first name for 708 men in Poland and a middle name for another 168, an 81/19 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 537th, between Gabryel (168) and Chandra (167).
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#535 François168
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#536 Gabryel168
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#537 Tobias168
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#538 Chandra167
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#539 Friedrich167