Komba
surname · Swahili · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Komba is a surname, most frequently recorded in Tanzania, where it is the 24th most common surname. It appears chiefly in Swahili and English, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: Chief of the umbrella-bearers of Gajabāhu, with a fortress in Mallavāḷāna; later fought a naval battle in Muttākara.
- TZTanzania1 in 557◐
- KEKenya1 in 33K
- ARArgentina1 in 22K
carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.
- ≈2.9K ●
- 2 ●
- Sources
- 49 ●
- 1 in 22K ◐
across 11 countries
recorded for this name
9.5K records
Official registry-verified
Argentina
Spellings & scripts●
Locally spelled Комба in UA Ukraine.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin●
Chief of the umbrella-bearers of Gajabāhu, with a fortress in Mallavāḷāna; later fought a naval battle in Muttākara. (Cv. lxx. 60 f.)
Sources 1
- Dictionary of Pali Proper Names Vol I (A-Dh)
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world●
Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TZ Tanzania | #24 | 15,489 | 8.8K rec. | — | 2 | Komba | 32 |
| AR Argentina | — | 2,074 | — | 1 in 22K | 2.1K | — | — |
| KE Kenya | — | 1,151 | 123 rec. | — | — | Komba | 13 |
| ES Spain | — | 338△ | 5 rec. | 1 in 148K | 338 | — | 3 |
| BR Brazil | — | 179 | — | 1 in 1.2M | 179 | — | — |
| US United States | — | 156 | 247 rec. | 1 in 2.1M | 159 | Komba | 49 |
| ID Indonesia | — | 140 | 5 rec. | — | — | Komba | 20 |
| SE Sweden | — | 92 | 88 rec. | — | — | Komba | 6 |
| CH Switzerland | — | 68△ | 1 rec. | 1 in 124K | 68 | — | 1 |
| NG Nigeria | — | 51 | 17 rec. | — | — | Komba | 5 |
| FR France | — | 41 | — | 1 in 1.7M | 41 | — | — |
| GB United Kingdom | — | 33 | 16 rec. | — | — | Komba | 15 |
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.
Languages●
- Swahili15K63%
- English3.1K13%
- French9404%
- Indonesian8674%
- Portuguese7403%
Show as table
| Name | Records | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Swahili | 15,293 | 63% |
| English | 3,103 | 13% |
| French | 940 | 4% |
| Indonesian | 867 | 4% |
| Portuguese | 740 | 3% |
Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.
Other recorded senses●
Komba is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Swahili, galago, bushbaby
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In nlg, hermit crab
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
In ktu, to sweep
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In lua, to sweep, brush.
as a wordGrammar and Dictionary of the Buluba-Lulua Language
In umb, sweep
as a wordVocabulary of the Umbundu Language
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name●
- James Joseph Kombab. 1922roman-catholic archbishop (1922-1992)
- John Damiano Kombab. 1954TZTanzanian Member of Parliament
- Lucy Kombab. 1980TZTanzanian actor and film director
- Yosepher Ferdinand Kombab. 1986TZTanzanian politician
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence●
Attested in 21 sources across 10 countries.
Reference works 3
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 25 rows in the corpus for this spelling.
Frequently asked questions
- How common is the name Komba?
- We estimate roughly 2.9 thousand people bear Komba (counting its spellings and scripts) across 11 countries in our records.
- In which country does Komba have the most bearers?
- Komba is most frequently recorded in Tanzania, where it is most often spelled komba.
- How common is Komba compared with other names?
- In Tanzania, Komba is the 24th most common surname of 103,894 surnames recorded there.
- What does the name Komba mean?
- Recorded meaning: Chief of the umbrella-bearers of Gajabāhu, with a fortress in Mallavāḷāna; later fought a naval battle in Muttākara.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/kombaThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.
About this data
Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Komba” — the 24th most common surname in Tanzania. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.