Obadiah
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "servant or worshipper of God".
Name Census estimates that about 2,261 living Americans carry the first name Obadiah. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Obadiah today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Obadiah births was 2024 (131 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Obadiah. 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 Obadiah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.3K
~ 1 in 151,594 Americans
Peak year
2024
131 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,412
Tracked since 1914
Census
Obadiah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,522 people with the first name Obadiah, which placed it at #9,229 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
#9,229
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,522 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
46.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Obadiah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Obadiah is White at 46.3%. The next largest groups are Black (30.2%) and Hispanic (11.7%). 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 Obadiah 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 Obadiah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White46.3% · 704
- Black or African American30.2% · 460
- Hispanic or Latino11.7% · 178
- Two or more races7.2% · 109
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 48
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 23
Popularity
Obadiah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Obadiah from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 810 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Obadiah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Obadiah 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 Obadiah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Obadiahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 23 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Obadiah, while Oklahoma, New York, Arkansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 27 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Obadiah
The name Obadiah is of Hebrew origin, derived from the biblical name עֹבַדְיָה (Obadyah), which is composed of the elements עבד ('abad) meaning "servant" and יה (Yah), a shortened form of the Hebrew name for God (Yahweh or YHWH). Thus, the name Obadiah literally translates to "servant of God" or "worshipper of the Lord."
The earliest recorded instance of the name Obadiah appears in the Hebrew Bible, where it refers to a prophet believed to have lived in the 6th century BCE. The Book of Obadiah, one of the shortest books in the Old Testament, is attributed to this prophet. This biblical figure is celebrated in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
The name Obadiah has been used across various cultures and time periods, often with variations in spelling and pronunciation. Some alternative spellings include Obadja, Obadias, Abadias, and Abdias. In Greek, the name is rendered as Obadias (Ὀβαδίας), and in Latin, it appears as Abdias or Obadias.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Obadiah. One of the earliest recorded was Obadiah, a prophet in the Hebrew Bible, who lived during the 6th century BCE. Another significant figure was Obadiah ben Abraham Aben Ari Bertinoro (1450-1516), an Italian rabbi and commentator on the Mishnah.
In the 17th century, Obadiah Sedgwick (1600-1658) was an English Puritan minister and member of the Westminster Assembly. Obadiah Walker (1616-1699) was an English academic and writer who converted to Catholicism and became the head of University College, Oxford.
The 18th century saw Obadiah Hulme (1651-1691), an English clergyman and author, and Obadiah Rich (1783-1850), an American lawyer and politician who served as Lieutenant Governor of Vermont.
In more recent times, notable individuals with the name Obadiah include Obadiah Strickland (1835-1895), a Canadian politician and farmer, and Obadiah Ewing (1796-1885), an American politician who served as a United States Representative from Illinois.
While the name Obadiah has retained its biblical roots and significance in various religious and cultural contexts, its usage has declined in modern times, particularly in Western countries. However, it remains a significant part of historical and literary records, reflecting the enduring influence of its biblical origins.
People
Obadiah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Obadiah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with O
Other first names starting with O with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Obadiah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Obadiah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,261 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Obadiah 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 151,594 US residents.
Is Obadiah a common name?
We classify Obadiah as "Rare". It ranks above 94.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,416 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Obadiah most popular?
The single biggest year for Obadiah was 2024, when 131 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Obadiah is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Obadiah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,522 people with the name Obadiah, or 0.50 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,229 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 Obadiah 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 Obadiah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Obadiah leans strongly male. 1,506 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 17 female bearers (1.1%). 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 Obadiah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Obadiah is White at 46.3%. The next largest groups are Black (30.2%) and Hispanic (11.7%). 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 Obadiah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Obadiah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.3% (704 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 Obadiah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Obadiah a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Obadiah 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 Obadiah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Obadiah 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 Obadiah 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 common is the name Obadiah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.