Explore the Family Name Hama

The meaning of Hama

1. Japanese: written 浜 or 濱 ‘seashore’, found throughout Japan and sometimes written phonetically with various characters such as 羽馬, 葉満. Some instances in America could be the result of shortening names beginning with Hama-. 2. Muslim (mainly Niger and Iraq): from the personal name Hama, a Kurdish and West African short form of Mohamed (see Muhammad).

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

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

According to the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Hama has noticeably increased over a decade. In 2000, it was ranked 76,700 but by 2010 it climbed up the ranks to 68,122, which is an 11.18% increase. The number of people bearing the surname also saw a significant growth of 24.03%, going from 233 in 2000 to 289 in 2010. This increase indicates a higher frequency of the surname in the population, with its proportion per 100k increasing by 11.11%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#76,700	#68,122	11.18%
Count	233	289	24.03%
Proportion per 100k	0.09	0.1	11.11%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Hama

On the topic of ethnic identity, the Decennial U.S. Census data shows interesting changes between 2000 and 2010. The share of individuals with the surname Hama identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander slightly decreased by 7.36%, and those identifying with two or more races declined significantly by 46.28%. The proportion of White individuals showed a minor decrease of 2.91%. The data for Hispanic, and American Indian and Alaskan Native remained the same with no change. However, the proportion of individuals identifying as Black rose dramatically by 156.91%.

	2000	2010	Change
White	39.91%	38.75%	-2.91%
Asian/Pacific Islander	40.34%	37.37%	-7.36%
Black	6.87%	17.65%	156.91%
Two or More Races	9.01%	4.84%	-46.28%
Hispanic	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%