Explore the Family Name Ajayi

The meaning of Ajayi

West African (Nigeria): from the Yoruba personal name Àjàyí, a circumstance name traditionally given to a child born with the face turned downward.

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

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

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Ajayi has grown significantly in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Ajayi was ranked 28,489th most common in the United States, but by 2010 it had jumped to 17,502nd place, indicating a rise of 38.57%. The actual count of people with this surname more than doubled during this period, increasing from 788 to 1610, a growth of 104.31%. This is also reflected in the proportion of individuals with the surname Ajayi per 100k people, which rose from 0.29 to 0.55, an increase of 89.66%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#28,489	#17,502	38.57%
Count	788	1,610	104.31%
Proportion per 100k	0.29	0.55	89.66%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Ajayi

Regarding the ethnic identity associated with the surname Ajayi, the Decennial U.S. Census reveals that it is predominantly identified as Black. In 2000, 93.15% of those bearing the surname identified as Black, a figure that increased slightly to 94.97% by 2010. There were small but notable changes in other ethnicities as well. The percentage identifying as White increased marginally from 1.90% to 1.99%, while the percentage identifying as Hispanic decreased from 1.90% to 1.18%. There was a significant decrease in those identifying as two or more races, dropping from 2.54% to 1.55%. The categories Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian and Alaskan Native remained unchanged at 0.

	2000	2010	Change
Black	93.15%	94.97%	1.95%
White	1.9%	1.99%	4.74%
Two or More Races	2.54%	1.55%	-38.98%
Hispanic	1.9%	1.18%	-37.89%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%