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Obi

#3,822 in 2025Boys' name

Heart

Obi has been given to 299 babies in the U.S. since 2007. In 2025 it ranked #3,822 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2022, with 37 recorded.

Babies named Obi, 2025

1 in 114,000

Obi over time, 1880–2025

Boys
01020304018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Obi: meaning, origin, and history

Heart

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Obi means

Obi means “heart”.

Origin, language, and formation

Obi is used in English.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 299 boys were recorded with the name Obi between 2007 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 37 in 2022; its best national rank was #3,259 in 2022.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #6,197 in 2020 to #3,822 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #7,883 in 2015 to #3,822 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Obi?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 114,000
29 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 58,900
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#3,822
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
79,239 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Obi sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 79,239 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Obi. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Obis were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Obi was born before 2021 — so the typical Obi is around 4 today.

Median birth year
2021
About 4 years old
Biggest decade
2020s
60.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
100.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
299
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2020s — 60.5% of all recorded uses (181).

Is Obi rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+43
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+2,375
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+4,061
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
2.90×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
78.4%
Peak was 2022 (37)
Years since peak
3
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
33.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,259
2022

Where Obi is used

Across 1910–2025, Obi was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 767,404 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Obi has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Obi around the world

Where Obi ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1998–2025
    #1,066
    in 2025
  • France
    2025–2025
    #5,960
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2022–2022
    #2,147
    in 2022
  • South Australia
    2008–2008
    #726
    in 2008

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Obi by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#3,822
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 2,375
Best rank ever
#3,259
2022
Peak year
2022
37 that year
First recorded
2007
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
299
Count in 2025
29

Names similar to Obi

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

TobiCobiObinnaObieKobiRobiKenobiJakobiJacobiOluwatobiJobiObidiahObioraChimaobiObiezeNairobiJkobiJahkobiShinobiObichukwu

Sibling names for Obi

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Obi

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