Explore the Family Name Adu

The meaning of Adu

1. West African (Nigeria): from the Yoruba personal name Adú, originally a nickname from a dú ‘that has a very dark complexion’. 2. West African (Ghana): from an Akan male personal name of unexplained etymology.

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

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

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Adu has increased significantly in popularity between 2000 and 2010. The rank of the surname jumped from 51,945 to 28,940, signifying a positive change of 44.29%. The count of people with this surname also increased from 376 in 2000 to 821 in 2010, marking an impressive growth rate of 118.35%. Additionally, the proportion of the Adu surname per 100,000 people doubled from 0.14 to 0.28 over the same decade.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#51,945	#28,940	44.29%
Count	376	821	118.35%
Proportion per 100k	0.14	0.28	100%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Adu

In terms of ethnicity, the data from the Decennial U.S. Census reveals that the majority of individuals with the Adu surname identify as Black, with this group accounting for 92.55% in 2000 and increasing slightly to 94.28% in 2010. The percentage of those identifying as two or more races decreased by 45.77%, from 4.26% in 2000 to 2.31% in 2010. Meanwhile, the proportion of White individuals decreased slightly from 1.60% to 1.34%. Notably, there was a new emergence of Hispanic representation among those with the Adu surname, rising to 0.97% in 2010 from no recorded percentage in 2000. There were no individuals who identified as Asian/Pacific Islander or American Indian and Alaskan Native in either census year.

	2000	2010	Change
Black	92.55%	94.28%	1.87%
Two or More Races	4.26%	2.31%	-45.77%
White	1.6%	1.34%	-16.25%
Hispanic	0%	0.97%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%