It is said that the term "Yoruba" is a corruption of "Oba Oyo" to Oyo-oba to Yariba/Yoba, and then finally to Yoruba. This terminology is attributed to the Hausa, northern neighbours of the Yoruba in western Africa. The linkage is romanticism, at best.
The origin of the word Yoruba is very likely "Yo ru bo" = (will offer sacrifices in veneration), alluding to the heritage religion practice of Yoruba people to venerate the ancestors (egun) and spiritual powers (orisha). The heritage continues today in Ifa/Orisha, Santeria, Lukumi, Vodoun, and other Yoruba-derived spiritual orders across the world. The religion commonality is reinforced, up to recent times, by a similar Yoruba language base. By definition, to be Yoruba is to live this cultural-linguistic-spiritual heritage. it is more than social-genetic identity (race), language ability, ethnicity, or geographical place.
Many people of Yoruba heritage through practising ancestors e.g parent(s), or birth (e.g in Ijebu or Ife or Porto Novo) now worship Christianity or Islam or other religions. They are not living a Yoruba culture [also Omoluabi or omo-Oduduwa]. On the other hand, an ethnic Chinese or German or USA citizen who worships Yoruba spirituality (venerates Yoruba ancestry) is living a Yoruba culture. If/when their children also take up Yoruba culture, the children will be of Yoruba heritage. This tradition of Yoruba heritage through ancestral lineage offers cultural redemption for those who had their African traditions, languages, "torn from them" by slavery or colonisation.
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