Makeba — girls' name

What the Data Says About Makeba

The Social Security Administration has registered 702 babies named Makeba between 1962 and 2003, spanning 42 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a girl's name, Makeba currently falls outside the top 1,000 girls' names for 2003. The name reached its historical peak in 1972, when 63 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Makeba performed strongest in the 1970s, accumulating 396 births during that ten-year window. Across the 5 decades of recorded activity, Makeba shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in New York, which accounts for 122 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by California and Illinois. In total, SSA state-level files list Makeba in 7 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Makeba in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 702 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.