Explore the Family Name Obey

The meaning of Obey

1. English (London): habitational name from Oby, Norfolk, which is recorded as Othebei and Oebei in 1086. The placename derives from the Old Norse personal name Authi + Old Norse bȳ ‘farmstead, village’. 2. Americanized form of French Aubin. 3. Americanized form of French Canadian Aubé; see Aube 1.

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

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

The popularity of the surname Obey, based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, has seen a slight decrease in rank from 30,716 in 2000 to 31,656 in 2010, a change of -3.06. However, the actual count of individuals with this surname increased by 1.96% over the same decade, rising from 716 to 730. The proportion per 100,000 people displaying the Obey surname also decreased by -7.41%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#30,716	#31,656	-3.06%
Count	716	730	1.96%
Proportion per 100k	0.27	0.25	-7.41%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Obey

According to the Decennial U.S. Census, the ethnic identity breakdown of individuals with the Obey surname experienced some changes between 2000 and 2010. The percentage of those identifying as Black saw a slight increase, from 52.79% to 53.70%. Meanwhile, those identifying as White decreased from 43.30% to 37.95%. Interestingly, individuals identifying with two or more ethnicities jumped dramatically from 1.68% to 5.21%, while those claiming an American Indian and Alaskan Native ethnicity emerged at 1.64% in 2010 where there had been none previously reported in 2000. There were no individuals with the surname Obey identified as Asian/Pacific Islander in either census year, and the Hispanic category dropped from 1.26% in 2000 to 0% in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Black	52.79%	53.7%	1.72%
White	43.3%	37.95%	-12.36%
Two or More Races	1.68%	5.21%	210.12%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	1.64%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Hispanic	1.26%	0%	0%