Given name & surname
Obama
“to lean or bend”
Obama is a surname from Luo. It is used in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Swahili.
Meaning & origin
What it means
Obama goes back to Luo obam, meaning “to lean or bend.”
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
How it developed
From Luo Mobam, from Luo obam (“to lean or bend”).
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 2008. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Obama through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 30
- 30 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 2009
- 16 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 16 in 2009. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 129 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Obama’s family of names
In English usage, Obama as a surname has a conventional equivalent in the Vietnamese form Ô-ba-ma. In English usage, Obama as a surname has a conventional equivalent in the Hawaiian form ʻOpama. In German usage, Obama as a surname has a conventional equivalent in the Greek form Ομπάμα.
Inner ring: spellings · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Obama has relatives in 27 languages.
21 related names in 27 languages. Point at a dot, or tab to the map and use the arrow keys.
Spellings & scripts 3
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 19
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
See also 2
Names our sources mention alongside this one. They are related in story or meaning, not forms of this name.
Similar names
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