Arba
Arabic name meaning "four" or "area consisting of four villages".
Name Census estimates that about 6 living Americans carry the first name Arba. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 74.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Arba today is around 93 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arba births was 1916 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arba. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Arba with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Arba is about 93 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Arbas were born before 1943.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Arba. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
6
~ 1 in 57,125,723 Americans
Peak year
1916
11 babies that year
Average age
93
years old
1938 SSA rank
#2,576
Tracked since 1898
Census
Arba in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 143 people with the first name Arba, which placed it at #46,519 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#46,519
National first-name rank
People counted
143
143 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Arba
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arba is White at 77.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.8%) and Black (7.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Arba described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Arba at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.6% · 111
- Hispanic or Latino9.8% · 14
- Black or African American7.0% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 4
- Two or more races2.8% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Arba
Arba is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 63 total registrations, 47 (74.6%) were male and 16 (25.4%) were female.
Arba as a male name
- Ranked #3,546 in 1938
- 5 male births in 1938
- Peak: 1898 (8 births)
Arba as a female name
- Ranked #2,576 in 1937
- 11 female births in 1937
- Peak: 1937 (11 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Arba on both sides of the split. Of the 147 people counted with this name, 51 were male (34.7%) and 96 were female (65.3%).
Popularity
Arba: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arba from the 1890s through to the 1930s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 26 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Arba by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Arba during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Arba
The name Arba has its origins in the Arabic language, dating back to ancient times in the Middle East. The name is derived from the Arabic word "arba'a," which means "four" or "fourth." This connection suggests that the name may have been given to a fourth-born child or someone associated with the number four in some significant way.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Arba can be found in the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament. In the book of Joshua, there is a mention of a man named Arba, who was the father of Anak and the progenitor of the Anakim, a race of giants who inhabited the land of Canaan.
Throughout history, the name Arba has been borne by several notable individuals. One of the earliest was Arba'ad bin Al-Mundhir, an Arab prince who lived in the 6th century AD and was known for his political and military exploits in the pre-Islamic era.
Another prominent figure with the name Arba was Arba ibn al-Salt, a 9th-century Arab poet and literary critic from Baghdad. He was renowned for his contributions to the field of Arabic literature and his critical analyses of poetry.
In the 12th century, there was Arba ibn Rabban al-Tabari, a Jewish physician and philosopher from Persia. He was known for his work in the field of medicine and his writings on various philosophical topics.
During the 14th century, Arba'ad al-Dimashqi was a Syrian scholar and historian who wrote extensively about the history and culture of Damascus.
In more recent times, Arba Kokalari was an Albanian writer and translator who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He played a significant role in the Albanian National Awakening movement and contributed to the development of the Albanian language and literature.
While the name Arba may not be as common today as it once was, its historical significance and rich cultural heritage continue to be a source of fascination for scholars and historians alike.
People
Arba + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arba as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Arba: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arba?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arba going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 57,125,723 US residents.
Is Arba a common name?
We classify Arba as "Very Rare". It ranks above 22.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 63 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arba most popular?
The single biggest year for Arba was 1916, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arba is about 93 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Arba in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 143 people with the name Arba, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #46,519 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Arba in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Arba?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Arba on both sides of the split. Of the 147 people counted with this name, 51 were male (34.7%) and 96 were female (65.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Arba?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arba is White at 77.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.8%) and Black (7.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Arba most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Arba in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.6% (111 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Arba in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Arba a male name?
Yes, 74.6% of people registered as Arba in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Arba still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Arba in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Arba can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Arba?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.