Explore the Family Name Obal

The meaning of Obal

1. Czech (Moravian) and Slovak: possibly a nickname from Czech dialect obalovat ‘to pronounce u instead of l’. 2. Polish: nickname from a derivative of obalać ‘to overturn, to pull down, to ruin’ (compare with 3). 3. Slovenian: nickname from obal ‘swollen eye of a vine’, or from a derivative of obaliti ‘to pull down, to ruin’ (compare with 2). 4. Spanish (Canary Islands): nickname from a variant of oval ‘oval’.

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

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

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Obal has seen a slight increase from 2000 to 2010. In 2000, Obal ranked 78,326 in terms of popularity and increased its rank to 78,040 by 2010, showing a notable growth of 0.37%. The number of people with the surname also grew during this period, from 227 in 2000 to 245 in 2010, representing an increase of nearly 8%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#78,326	#78,040	0.37%
Count	227	245	7.93%
Proportion per 100k	0.08	0.08	0%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Obal

The ethnicity associated with the surname Obal has also shown some changes according to data from the Decennial U.S. Census. The percentage of individuals identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander more than doubled between 2000 and 2010, rising from 5.73% to 9.80%. The proportion of those identifying with two or more races saw a minor increase from 2.64% to 2.86%. However, the percentage of Obals identifying as White declined from 88.55% to 78.37%. New in 2010, was the appearance of a Hispanic identity at 5.71%, where there had been none recorded in 2000. There were no Obals identified as Black or American Indian and Alaskan Native in either year.

	2000	2010	Change
White	88.55%	78.37%	-11.5%
Asian/Pacific Islander	5.73%	9.8%	71.03%
Hispanic	0%	5.71%	0%
Two or More Races	2.64%	2.86%	8.33%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%