Explore the Family Name Abera

The meaning of Abera

Ethiopian: from the male personal name Abera, which is interpreted as ‘he illuminated’ in the Amharic language. — Note: Since Ethiopians do not have hereditary surnames, this name was registered as such only after immigration of its bearers to the US.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Abera has seen substantial growth in popularity from 2000 to 2010. In 2000, Abera was ranked as the 89,895th most popular surname, but by 2010 it had jumped significantly to rank 43,511. This represents a relative rank change of 51.6%. The absolute number of individuals with this surname also increased, with a count of 191 in 2000 and 496 reported in 2010, marking an impressive increase of nearly 160%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#89,895	#43,511	51.6%
Count	191	496	159.69%
Proportion per 100k	0.07	0.17	142.86%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Abera

The ethnic identity associated with the surname Abera has also evolved according to the Decennial U.S. Census data. In 2000, 80.63% of people with the surname identified as Black, rising to 93.55% in 2010. The percentage of Aberas identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander increased marginally from 0% in 2000 to 1.21% in 2010. Conversely, there have been decreases in several categories; those identifying as having two or more races dropped from 9.42% to 1.81%, while the proportion identifying as White fell from 5.24% to 2.82%. The representation of Hispanics within the Abera surname disappeared entirely, decreasing from 2.62% in 2000 to 0% in 2010. No data was reported for American Indian and Alaskan Native in either year.

	2000	2010	Change
Black	80.63%	93.55%	16.02%
White	5.24%	2.82%	-46.18%
Two or More Races	9.42%	1.81%	-80.79%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	1.21%	0%
Hispanic	2.62%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%