Eyob
A masculine given name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 249 living Americans carry the first name Eyob. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Eyob today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Eyob births was 2011 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Eyob. 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 Eyob with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
249
~ 1 in 1,376,523 Americans
Peak year
2011
20 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,502
Tracked since 1994
Census
Eyob in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 791 people with the first name Eyob, which placed it at #14,777 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
#14,777
National first-name rank
People counted
791
791 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
98.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Eyob
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eyob is Black at 98.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (0.8%) and White (0.4%). 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 Eyob 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 Eyob at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American98.4% · 778
- Two or more races0.8% · 6
- White0.4% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 3
- Hispanic or Latino0.1% · 1
Popularity
Eyob: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Eyob from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 124 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Eyob remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Eyob 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 Eyob during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Eyobs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Eyob
The name Eyob has its origins in the Semitic languages, specifically Ge'ez, the ancient language of Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is the Ethiopian form of the Hebrew name Iyov, which is the name of the biblical figure Job from the Book of Job in the Old Testament.
In the Book of Job, Iyov (or Job) is a righteous man who endures immense suffering and trials, but remains faithful to God. His name is believed to be derived from the Hebrew root word "ayav," meaning "to be hostile" or "to be an enemy," potentially referring to his struggles against adversity.
The earliest recorded use of the name Eyob can be traced back to the 4th century AD in the Ge'ez language and Ethiopian Christianity. The Ethiopic version of the Book of Job, known as the "Kebre Negest" or the "Book of Kings," features the name Eyob prominently.
One of the most famous historical figures with the name Eyob was Eyob, a 14th-century Ethiopian monk and religious leader. He is revered as a saint in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and is known for his role in promoting the spread of Christianity in the region.
Another notable figure was Eyob II, an Ethiopian Emperor who reigned from 1603 to 1604. He is known for his brief but turbulent reign during a period of civil unrest and conflict in the Ethiopian Empire.
In the 15th century, there was a prominent Ethiopian scholar and historian named Eyob, who wrote extensively on the history and culture of Ethiopia. His works, such as the "Kebre Negest" and the "Fetha Negest" (the law book of the Ethiopian Empire), are considered important historical documents.
The name Eyob also appears in other religious texts and historical records from the region, including the Qur'an, where it is spelled as "Ayyub." In the Islamic tradition, Ayyub is revered as a prophet and is associated with patience and perseverance in the face of adversity, much like the biblical Job.
Another notable figure with the name Eyob was Eyob, a 17th-century Ethiopian painter and artist who is known for his religious artwork and frescoes in churches and monasteries throughout the country.
People
Eyob + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Eyob as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with E
Other first names starting with E with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Eyob: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Eyob?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 249 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Eyob 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 1,376,523 US residents.
Is Eyob a common name?
We classify Eyob as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 251 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Eyob most popular?
The single biggest year for Eyob was 2011, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Eyob is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Eyob in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 791 people with the name Eyob, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,777 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 Eyob 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 Eyob?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Eyob appears almost entirely male. Of the 793 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Eyob?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eyob is Black at 98.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (0.8%) and White (0.4%). 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 Eyob most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Eyob in the 2020 Census, accounting for 98.4% (778 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 Eyob in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Eyob a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Eyob 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 Eyob still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Eyob 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 Eyob 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 are called Eyob?
You can see how many people have the name Eyob on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.