Obediah
Obediah was given to 5 boys in 2025, #13,360 among boys’ names; 226 Americans have been recorded with it since 1912 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Obediah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Obediah?
#13,360 among boys’ names, 2025
Obediah rose from #13,501 in 2015 to #13,360 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 2.6 to 2.9 per million.
8 babies in 1954, the peak
Obediah peaked in 1954, when 8 boys were given it, #3,106 among boys’ names. The 5 births of 2025 are 63% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #13,360 | 2.9 |
| 2024 | 6 | #11,945 | 3.5 |
| 2023 | 7 | #10,501 | 4.1 |
| 2021 | 7 | #10,485 | 4.0 |
| 2020 | 6 | #11,600 | 3.5 |
| 2019 | 5 | #13,579 | 2.8 |
| 2017 | 8 | #9,448 | 4.3 |
| 2015 | 5 | #13,501 | 2.6 |
| 2012 | 7 | #10,454 | 3.7 |
| 2010 | 5 | #13,712 | 2.6 |
Every recorded year (39)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 6 | #12,147 | 2.9 |
| 2007 | 5 | #13,846 | 2.4 |
| 2002 | 5 | #11,952 | 2.6 |
| 1997 | 5 | #10,348 | 2.7 |
| 1993 | 5 | #9,743 | 2.5 |
| 1991 | 5 | #9,197 | 2.5 |
| 1981 | 5 | #6,985 | 2.8 |
| 1979 | 6 | #5,848 | 3.5 |
| 1978 | 5 | #6,492 | 3.0 |
| 1977 | 5 | #6,559 | 3.0 |
| 1971 | 5 | #5,438 | 2.8 |
| 1970 | 5 | #5,235 | 2.7 |
| 1957 | 7 | #3,465 | 3.2 |
| 1956 | 5 | #4,314 | 2.4 |
| 1954 | 8 | #3,106 | 3.9 |
| 1949 | 6 | #3,598 | 3.4 |
| 1938 | 7 | #3,083 | 6.3 |
| 1935 | 6 | #3,541 | 5.8 |
| 1934 | 5 | #4,055 | 4.8 |
| 1931 | 5 | #4,165 | 4.8 |
| 1930 | 7 | #3,498 | 6.4 |
| 1929 | 5 | #4,380 | 4.6 |
| 1925 | 6 | #4,068 | 5.4 |
| 1924 | 7 | #3,748 | 6.2 |
| 1920 | 5 | #4,777 | 4.7 |
| 1919 | 5 | #4,613 | 5.1 |
| 1916 | 6 | #3,772 | 6.7 |
| 1914 | 7 | #2,832 | 10.7 |
| 1912 | 6 | #2,474 | 14.0 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Obediah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Obediah has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 39 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Obediah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Obediah, and how old are they?
An estimated 139 Americans named Obediah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (62% of everyone recorded); the median is 19 years old and half are between 7 and 48. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 207 people named Obediah (4 women and girls, 203 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 119 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.7 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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 2 names spelled alike, given to 2,747 babies since 1880, Obediah is the second most given (8.2% of them). In 2025 it was given to 5 of their 109 babies (4.6%), again the second most given.
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 Obediah and names like it
- Compare Obediah and ObadiahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1950sObediah peaked in 1954.
- The top names of 1954The year the most babies were named Obediah.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Obediah alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with OMost given first.