Kaba Family History

West African (mainly Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Mali): from the name of the Kaba clan of the Mandinka people, which may be based on the name of the village Kaba in southern Mali, which is of great historical importance to Mandinka. Compare Kabba. Ethiopian: from the Oromo personal name Kaba meaning ‘possessor’. It may also be a status name. — Note: Since Ethiopians do not have hereditary surnames, this name was registered as such only after immigration of its bearers to the US.

Turkish: nickname from kaba ‘large’ also ‘coarse’ (compare Greek Kappas). It may also be an ornamental name from a regional homonym meaning ‘mallow’. Czech (Kába): from the personal name Kába, a derivative of the Biblical name Gabriel.

Hungarian: from kaba ‘falcon’ (loanword from Serbian and Croatian koba, a pet form of kobac ‘sparrowhawk’), hence a nickname for someone thought to resemble a falcon or a metonymic occupational name for a falconer. Alternatively, it may be a nickname for a slow-witted person from Hungarian kába ‘slow, lethargic’.

Hungarian: habitational name from any of the places so called in Szabolcs County in northern Hungary and in former Kȕlsȍ Szolnok County, now in Romania.

Japanese: written 樺 ‘birch tree’. The name is not common in Japan. In North America, it could (also) be a shortened form of a longer name.