Explore the Family Name Namba

The meaning of Namba

Japanese: written 難波, with the characters for ‘difficult’ and ‘wave’ used phonetically; the original meaning is unclear. The name is mainly found in the island of Shikoku. It is also Romanized as Nanba. Some characteristic forenames: Japanese Nobuaki, Shizuo, Chihiro, Chizuko, Hiroki, Hiroshi, Ikuo, Isamu, Iwao, Katsuhiro, Kazuo, Kazushi.

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

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

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Namba has seen a slight rise in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In the year 2000, it ranked 46,678 in popularity and increased to rank 45,189 by 2010, marking a change of 3.19%. The count of individuals with this surname also rose from 429 to 474, signifying a 10.49% increase. However, the proportion per 100k people remained steady at 0.16.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#46,678	#45,189	3.19%
Count	429	474	10.49%
Proportion per 100k	0.16	0.16	0%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Namba

Regarding ethnic identity, the Decennial U.S. Census reveals that the majority of the Namba surname bearers identified as Asian/Pacific Islander, although their percentage dipped from 78.55 in 2000 to 74.68 in 2010. Interestingly, those identifying as two or more races saw an uptick from 8.62% to 10.97%. The percentage of white individuals with this surname decreased from 10.49% to 8.65%, while the Hispanic representation experienced growth from 2.33% to 3.16%. There was no change for Black or American Indian and Alaskan Native populations, with the data either suppressed or showing zero representation both years.

	2000	2010	Change
Asian/Pacific Islander	78.55%	74.68%	-4.93%
Two or More Races	8.62%	10.97%	27.26%
White	10.49%	8.65%	-17.54%
Hispanic	2.33%	3.16%	35.62%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%