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Evidence-led referenceJapanese names, readings and kanji
japanesenameatlas.infoJapanese name reference
Canonical reference record
JMnedict-backedKANJIDIC2 character context
Japanese surname

Ōba

おおば

Surname-classified records in JMnedict.

おおばオオバŌba
Compare spellings
Reference coverage

Extended source depth

This reading group has a comparatively broad dictionary footprint across source-recorded spellings or records. The counts describe corpus coverage, not real-world popularity.

Distinct recorded spellings17

group-level written forms

Source spelling/reading rows17

records contributing to this reading group

Coverage levelExtended

based only on the imported source footprint

Pronunciation & romanization

How to read Ōba

The kana reading is source-recorded. Romanization and mora segmentation are deterministic reading aids generated from that kana; pitch accent is not inferred.

Source readingおおば

Normalized to hiragana for comparison.

Katakana formオオバ

The same reading converted to katakana.

RomanizationŌba

Macron-style display. Vowel-sequence form: Ooba. Personal spelling and true vowel boundaries can differ.

Mora segmentationお · お · ば

3 morae in this reading. Small ゃ/ゅ/ょ-type kana join the preceding mora.

Audio note: the play button uses Japanese text-to-speech provided by the visitor’s browser/device. It is a convenience preview, not a recorded native-speaker pronunciation or pitch-accent authority.

Meaning by written form

What can Ōba mean?

A Japanese name can be written in more than one way, and its meaning can change with the kanji used. Rather than assigning one English meaning to “Ōba”, this page explains each recorded spelling separately.

Kanji spellings11

character meanings available

Kana-only spellings1

no kanji meaning attached

InterpretationBy spelling

based on the exact written form

Kana-only spelling

おおば

This spelling is written only in kana. Because it contains no kanji, there is no kanji meaning to interpret here. The kana record the name’s sound; any personal or cultural meaning would depend on context not supplied by the dictionary.

Characters and loaded glosses
おKana characterおKana characterばKana character
Kanji spelling

大場

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling

大塲

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling

大峡

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling

大島

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling

大峽

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling

大庭

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling

大歯

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling

大波

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling

大硲

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling

大羽

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Kanji spelling

大葉

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Characters and loaded glosses

Showing meaning context for the first 12 distinct written forms out of 17. The recorded-spellings section below retains the wider source set.

How to read these meanings

The English words shown here are dictionary meanings of individual kanji. They help explain what a spelling can suggest, but they are not a guaranteed translation of the full name and do not establish why a particular person was given that name.

Reading profile

How Ōba is represented

These counts describe records in the imported name corpus. They are not a ranking of how popular a spelling is among people in Japan.

Recorded kana readings1

おおば

Kanji-based spellings16

among the forms analyzed on this page

Kana characters3

in the primary dictionary reading

Morae3

small ゃ/ゅ/ょ-type kana combine with the preceding mora

Kana-only1

recorded spelling

2-kanji forms16

recorded spellings

JMnedict classification evidence

How this reading is classified in the source corpus

This separates dictionary classification from popularity. The same exact kana reading can be recorded as a given name, a surname, or both, and given-name records can carry male, female or unspecified source labels.

Primary reading recorded asSurname

おおば in the imported JMnedict corpus

Given-name written forms0

0 source spelling/reading rows

Surname written forms17

18 source spelling/reading rows

Given-name labels—

row counts carrying each JMnedict source label

Exact readingGiven-name evidenceGiven-name labelsSurname evidence
おおばŌba00 source rows—source rows · distinct forms: —1718 source rows

Classification boundary: male/female/unspecified are labels attached to imported JMnedict name records. They are not population shares, probabilities, identity claims, or evidence that a spelling is currently common in Japan. A source row can also be repeated across different written forms, so row counts and distinct-writing counts are shown separately.

Spelling anatomy

Corpus structure behind Ōba

This section summarizes the exact source-recorded forms loaded for this reading group. Stroke and character-position statistics are descriptive corpus properties, not popularity or style scores.

Kanji forms with complete stroke data16

9–31 strokes observed span

Median total strokes15

among forms with complete KANJIDIC2 stroke data

All-kanji name-classified forms14

all component kanji loaded as jōyō/jinmeiyō classes

Other/unclassified kanji forms2

contains at least one character outside that loaded classification

Reading ambiguity

Can the same writing be read another way?

12 of 17 displayed written forms have more than one surname reading somewhere in the active JMnedict corpus. This is dictionary-record ambiguity, not a prediction of how a particular person reads the name.

Written forms checked17

distinct spellings displayed on this page

Multiple recorded readings12

exact written forms with 2+ source readings

Single recorded reading5

within this active surname corpus

Largest reading set9

distinct kana readings for one displayed writing

大庭
9 source-recorded readings
ŌsokoおおそこŌnihaおおにはŌniwaおおにわŌbaおおば · this pageŌmuneおおむねŌmubaおおむば
大羽
4 source-recorded readings
Ōbaおおば · this pageŌhaおおはŌbaneおおばねŌhaneおおはね
大馬
3 source-recorded readings
Ōbaおおば · this pageŌbazakiおおばざきŌmaおおま

A reading shown without a link is still source-recorded, but its destination group does not yet meet the reference-depth standard used for the main library. Limited records are not promoted merely to create extra internal links.

Kanji role reference

How recurring characters function across Ōba spellings

Position counts are calculated only from the distinct written forms analyzed for this page. KANJIDIC2 nanori are character-level name-reading references; they are not used here to decompose or assert the reading of a specific multi-kanji name.

KanjiCharacter glossesFormsFirstFinalInternalSoloStrokesKANJIDIC2 nanoriLoaded class
大large, big12120003うふ, お, おう, た +9Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 1
場location, place3030012—Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 2
庭courtyard, garden, yard2020010ばJōyō · KANJIDIC grade 3
葉leaf, plane, lobe2020012よ, わJōyō · KANJIDIC grade 3
塲open space, field, market1010014—Unclassified in the loaded KANJIDIC grade field
峡gorge, ravine101009き, ばJōyō · KANJIDIC grade 8
島island1010010—Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 3
峽gorge, strait, ravine1010010かいJinmeiyō · KANJIDIC grade 10
歯tooth, cog1010012—Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 3
波waves, billows, Poland101008ひら, みな, みなみ, わJōyō · KANJIDIC grade 3
硲ravine, gorge, gap1010012さこ, はざUnclassified in the loaded KANJIDIC grade field
羽feathers, counter for birds, rabbits101006しゅう, ばJōyō · KANJIDIC grade 2

Counts describe this source-recorded spelling set, not population use. A repeated kanji can contribute to more than one position role across different spellings.

Exact writing research map

Move from a spelling to its readings, characters and literal sequence context

These relationships are exact and source-backed. Whole-name readings shown in each card come from JMnedict within the current name class; exact-writing search can surface records from other name classes. Character links open KANJIDIC2-backed kanji pages. Sequence context means the same kanji string occurs contiguously in another recorded written form—it does not prove shared origin or meaning.

Exact written form

おおば

Source-recorded full-name readings in this name class
Ōbaおおば · this page
Characters in order
おKanaおKanaばKana

Showing research maps for the first 10 distinct written forms out of 17. Every detailed spelling card below still links to exact-writing search and its component kanji.

Corpus pattern

Kanji recurring across Ōba spellings

Only characters appearing in at least two distinct analyzed spellings are shown here. Frequency describes this source-recorded spelling set, not real-world baby-name popularity.

Same reading, different writing

Explore written forms of Ōba

17 source-recorded forms use the primary source reading おおば. Other source readings can appear in this romanized group when the imported records converge on the same index form. Use Compare to inspect exact spellings side by side.

おおば

おおば · Ōba

Katakana オオバMorae 3Strokes —

This written form uses kana rather than kanji, so there are no character-level kanji glosses to combine.

Spelling comparator

Compare Ōba forms side by side

Each exact written spelling appears once in this table even when JMnedict records more than one reading for that writing. Stroke totals and character glosses come from KANJIDIC2 when all component kanji are available.

SpellingOne source readingCharacter-level glossesTotal strokesLoaded character class
おおばおおばKana-only spelling—Kana spelling
大場おおば大 — large, big · 場 — location, place15All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
大塲おおば大 — large, big · 塲 — open space, field17Includes unclassified/outside loaded jōyō-jinmeiyō class
大峡おおば大 — large, big · 峡 — gorge, ravine12All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
大島おおば大 — large, big · 島 — island13All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
大峽おおば大 — large, big · 峽 — gorge, strait13All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
大庭おおば大 — large, big · 庭 — courtyard, garden13All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
大歯おおば大 — large, big · 歯 — tooth, cog15All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
大波おおば大 — large, big · 波 — waves, billows11All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
大硲おおば大 — large, big · 硲 — ravine, gorge15Includes unclassified/outside loaded jōyō-jinmeiyō class
大羽おおば大 — large, big · 羽 — feathers, counter for birds, rabbits9All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
大葉おおば大 — large, big · 葉 — leaf, plane15All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
大馬おおば大 — large, big · 馬 — horse13All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
太場おおば太 — plump, thick · 場 — location, place16All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
応葉おおば応 — apply, answer · 葉 — leaf, plane19All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
横場おおば横 — sideways, side · 場 — location, place27All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified

The comparison table shows the first 16 distinct written forms; the detailed cards above show up to 80 spelling/reading records.

What does Ōba mean?

There is not necessarily one fixed English meaning. The reading identifies the spoken name; different written forms can use different kanji. Character glosses describe individual kanji and should not be treated as proof of the intention behind a particular person’s name.

Related readings

More surnames beginning with おお

Related by the opening kana of the dictionary reading. This is a deterministic browsing relationship, not a claim that the names share the same meaning.

Shared-kanji relationships

Other surnames sharing kanji with Ōba

These links are calculated from exact characters appearing in source-recorded spellings on this page. Sharing a kanji does not mean two names have the same reading, origin, gender or intended meaning.

Continue research

Where to go next from Ōba

Use literal reading, character and corpus relationships to continue without treating nearby records as automatically related.

Evidence on this page

What each source establishes

JMnedict establishes recorded written forms, readings and name classifications; where safely associated, this page can also show JMnedict-supplied trans_det source text without treating it as a whole-name meaning. KANJIDIC2 supplies character readings, nanori, stroke counts, grade classes and English character glosses. The Ministry of Justice remains the official reference for Japanese child-name character rules. The Agency for Cultural Affairs romanization guidance is the reference for generated Latin-script reading aids.

Source boundary

The spelling-frequency and structural counts on this page are calculated from imported JMnedict records. They are corpus counts, not population-frequency claims. KANJIDIC2 supplies the kanji metadata used in character and stroke comparisons.

Review sources →