Oba
Oba was last recorded in 2023, when 5 babies were given it; 67 Americans have been recorded with it between 1915 and 2023 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Oba by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Oba?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #13,602, in 2023; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
8 babies in 1974, the peak
Oba peaked in 1974, when 8 boys were given it, #4,082 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 5 | #13,602 | 2.9 |
| 2021 | 5 | #13,532 | 2.9 |
| 2019 | 5 | #13,577 | 2.8 |
| 1979 | 7 | #5,208 | 4.1 |
| 1977 | 5 | #6,558 | 3.0 |
| 1974 | 8 | #4,082 | 5.1 |
| 1973 | 7 | #4,382 | 4.5 |
| 1972 | 5 | #5,528 | 3.1 |
| 1969 | 5 | #4,831 | 2.8 |
| 1923 | 5 | #4,707 | 4.6 |
Every recorded year (12)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1919 | 5 | #4,612 | 5.1 |
| 1915 | 5 | #4,223 | 5.9 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Oba a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Oba has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 12 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Oba: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Oba, and how old are they?
An estimated 48 Americans named Oba and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026, too few to state an age range. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 155 people named Oba (12 women and girls, 143 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 39 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4.0 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Oba rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 4,875 babies since 1880, Oba is the fourth most given (1.4% of them). In 2025 none of their 39 babies recorded by SSA was a Oba (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
More about Oba and names like it
- Compare Oba and ObieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sOba peaked in 1974.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Oba since 1910.
- The top names of 1974The year the most babies were named Oba.
- Names starting with OMost given first.