Explore the Family Name Chiba

The meaning of Chiba

Japanese: written 千葉 ‘thousand leaves’. It is a habitational name from Chiba-gun in Shimōsa (now part of Chiba prefecture). The Chiba were a branch of the Taira clan, and were powerful in Shimōsa from the 12th to 16th centuries. Some characteristic forenames: Japanese Akira, Kazuo, Yoshi, Ichiro, Naoki, Setsuko, Takashi, Aki, Akio, Atsuko, Etsuko, Fumiko.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Chiba in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname "Chiba" saw a slight decrease in rank from 2000 to 2010, moving from 55,609th most popular to 56,710th. In terms of count, however, the number of people with this surname increased by approximately 4.35%, from 345 people in 2000 to 360 in 2010. Despite the increase in count, the proportion of people with the Chiba surname per 100k population dropped slightly by 7.69%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#55,609	#56,710	-1.98%
Count	345	360	4.35%
Proportion per 100k	0.13	0.12	-7.69%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Chiba

The Decennial U.S. Census data also provides insight into the ethnicity associated with the "Chiba" surname. The largest ethnic identity associated with Chiba remained Asian/Pacific Islander, which decreased slightly from 83.19% in 2000 to 82.22% in 2010. The proportion of people with this surname identifying as two or more races also saw a decrease—from 6.96% in 2000 to 6.39% in 2010. On the other hand, those identifying as White increased marginally from 9.57% to 10.28%. There were no recorded individuals with the Chiba surname who identified as Hispanic, Black, American Indian and Alaskan Native during both census years.

	2000	2010	Change
Asian/Pacific Islander	83.19%	82.22%	-1.17%
White	9.57%	10.28%	7.42%
Two or More Races	6.96%	6.39%	-8.19%
Hispanic	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%