Kobe Bryant's Real Name: Kobe Bean Bryant

Quick answer: Kobe Bryant's full name is Kobe Bean Bryant. He was born on August 23, 1978, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and died on January 26, 2020, near Calabasas, California. He played under Kobe Bryant—the civil form of his birth name.

Real name and early life

Britannica identifies him in full as Kobe Bean Bryant, born August 23, 1978, in Philadelphia (Britannica). Bryant is the family surname; Bean is the middle name (echoing father Joe “Jelly Bean” Bryant). He spent part of childhood in Italy while Joe played professionally there, then starred at Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s southeastern Pennsylvania high-school scoring mark. He entered the 1996 NBA draft straight from high school.

Career highlights

Charlotte selected him 13th overall in 1996 and traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers. As a shooting guard he won five NBA championships with the Lakers (2000–02, 2009–10), became a multiple-time scoring champion, earned the 2008 league MVP, and twice won NBA Finals MVP (2009, 2010). On January 22, 2006, he scored 81 points in a game—long the second-highest NBA total after Chamberlain’s 100. He won Olympic gold with Team USA in 2008 and 2012. After Achilles, knee, and shoulder injuries late in his career, he retired in 2016. Post-playing work included the Oscar-winning animated short Dear Basketball (2017) and the book The Mamba Mentality. On January 26, 2020, he and daughter Gianna were among nine killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas en route to a basketball tournament (Britannica; NBA.com). He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020. Category tags that say only “athletes” should prefer basketball-players. Across NBA billing, the professional name stayed Kobe Bryant; the documented full name is Kobe Bean Bryant.

Jersey retirements, murals, and Hall of Fame induction kept the Kobe Bryant billing central in memorial coverage after 2020.

Name notes for searchers

“Black Mamba” is a self-applied nickname, not a legal name. Prefer Britannica, NBA.com, and Hall of Fame materials. Wikipedia is useful only as a pointer after primary citations.

The Mamba Mentality brand extended into youth sports academies and media projects after retirement.