Explore the Family Name Alemayehu

The meaning of Alemayehu

Ethiopian: from the personal name Alemayehu, which is interpreted as ‘I have seen the world’ 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 Alemayehu in the United States?

The surname Alemayehu witnessed a significant rise in popularity between 2000 and 2010, according to the Decennial U.S. Census data. In 2000, it was ranked 61,855th in terms of frequency but jumped to 29,947th by 2010. This represents an impressive change of 51.59%. The count of people with this surname also increased from 303 in 2000 to 784 in 2010 – a notable increase of 158.75%. Accordingly, the proportion of people named Alemayehu per 100,000 people also rose from 0.11 to 0.27 during the same period.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#61,855	#29,947	51.59%
Count	303	784	158.75%
Proportion per 100k	0.11	0.27	145.45%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Alemayehu

In terms of ethnic identity, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals that the majority of individuals with the surname Alemayehu identified as Black, with the percentage rising from 84.16% in 2000 to 95.41% in 2010. The number of people identifying as two or more races decreased sharply from 10.23% in 2000 to just 2.17% in 2010. The percentage of White individuals also declined significantly from 3.63% in 2000 to 1.02% in 2010. Importantly, there was no representation from the Asian/Pacific Islander or American Indian and Alaskan Native communities in either year. However, a small percentage (0.64%) identified as Hispanic in 2010, a group not represented in 2000.

	2000	2010	Change
Black	84.16%	95.41%	13.37%
Two or More Races	10.23%	2.17%	-78.79%
White	3.63%	1.02%	-71.9%
Hispanic	0%	0.64%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%