Toba
From Japanese origin meaning "abundant" or "bountiful".
Name Census estimates that about 395 living Americans carry the first name Toba. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Toba today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Toba births was 2024 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Toba. 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 Toba with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
395
~ 1 in 867,733 Americans
Peak year
2024
19 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,349
Tracked since 1918
Census
Toba in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 502 people with the first name Toba, which placed it at #20,542 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
#20,542
National first-name rank
People counted
502
502 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Toba
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Toba is White at 78.9%. The next largest groups are Black (9.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.0%). 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 Toba 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 Toba at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.9% · 396
- Black or African American9.6% · 48
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.0% · 40
- Two or more races2.8% · 14
- Hispanic or Latino0.8% · 4
Popularity
Toba: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Toba from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 136 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Toba remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Toba 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 Toba during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tobas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Toba
The name Toba is believed to have originated from the Algonquian language, spoken by various Native American tribes in North America. It is thought to be derived from the word "tobacco," which was introduced to Europe by Spanish explorers in the 16th century. The name Toba may have been given to individuals who were involved in the cultivation or trade of tobacco.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Toba can be found in the writings of French explorer and colonist Samuel de Champlain, who documented his interactions with the Abenaki tribe in the early 17th century. He mentioned a chief named Toba, who was likely named after the plant.
In the 19th century, the name Toba became associated with a group of indigenous people living in the Chaco region of Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia. The Toba people, also known as the Qom, are part of the Guaycuruan linguistic family. It is possible that the name was adopted by European settlers in the region, or that it was derived from the Toba people's own language.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Toba was Toba Inlet, a 19th-century Toba Indigenous leader and warrior from British Columbia, Canada. He played a significant role in the Chilcotin War of 1864, a conflict between the Tsilhqot'in people and the British colonial authorities.
Another notable figure with the name Toba was Toba Heitor Xavier (1914-1981), a Brazilian artist and sculptor. He was known for his abstract and modernist works and was a prominent figure in the Brazilian art scene of the 20th century.
In the field of literature, Toba Beta (1932-2011) was a notable Romanian writer and journalist. She wrote several novels and short story collections, exploring themes of identity, memory, and the human condition. Her works were widely acclaimed and translated into multiple languages.
Toba Khedoori (born 1964) is a contemporary Iraqi-Australian artist known for her large-scale sculptural installations and drawings. Her works have been exhibited in major museums and galleries around the world, and she has received numerous awards and accolades for her artistic contributions.
Toba Tek Singh was the name of a short story by renowned Indian writer Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-1955). The story, set during the Partition of India in 1947, explores themes of identity, displacement, and the human cost of political upheaval. It is considered one of Manto's most significant works and a masterpiece of Urdu literature.
People
Toba + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Toba as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Toba: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Toba?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 395 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Toba 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 867,733 US residents.
Is Toba a common name?
We classify Toba as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 436 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Toba most popular?
The single biggest year for Toba was 2024, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Toba is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Toba in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 502 people with the name Toba, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,542 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 Toba 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 Toba?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Toba leans strongly female. 459 people counted with this name were female (90.9%), compared with 46 male bearers (9.1%). 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 Toba?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Toba is White at 78.9%. The next largest groups are Black (9.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.0%). 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 Toba most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Toba in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.9% (396 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 Toba in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Toba a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Toba in the SSA data are female. 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 Toba still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Toba 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 Toba 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 share the name Toba?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.