Explore the Family Name Melaku

The meaning of Melaku

Ethiopian: from the personal name Melaku, which is interpreted as ‘his angel’ 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 Melaku in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname Melaku has seen significant growth from 2000 to 2010. In 2000, Melaku was ranked 119,644th in popularity with a count of 134 people carrying the name. By 2010, the ranking improved to 61,297 with the number of individuals bearing the name more than doubling to 328. This represents a remarkable increase of about 145% in the count and about 49% in rank over the decade.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#119,644	#61,297	48.77%
Count	134	328	144.78%
Proportion per 100k	0.05	0.11	120%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Melaku

The Decennial U.S. Census information also reveals interesting trends in the ethnic identity associated with the surname Melaku. A vast majority of those with this name identify as Black – a figure that rose from 83.58% in 2000 to 92.68% in 2010. From 2000 to 2010, there was a notable emergence of Melakus identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander, White, and Hispanic, from zero to 1.52%, 2.44%, and 1.52% respectively. However, there was a considerable decrease (about 85%) in the percentage of Melakus identifying with two or more races, dropping from 11.94% to just 1.83%. There were no changes in the percentage of Melakus identifying as American Indian and Alaskan Native over this period.

	2000	2010	Change
Black	83.58%	92.68%	10.89%
White	0%	2.44%	0%
Two or More Races	11.94%	1.83%	-84.67%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	1.52%	0%
Hispanic	0%	1.52%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%