Explore the Family Name Osuji
The meaning of Osuji
West African (Nigeria): from the Igbo personal name Osuji, meaning ‘servant of the yam god’. Yam (ji in Igbo) is a staple of life in Nigeria, while an òsu is “a person dedicated to a god, a thing set apart—a taboo forever and his children after him”, as defined in the novel Things Fall Apart, written by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe.
Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.
How common is the last name Osuji in the United States?
Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Osuji has seen a significant rise in its popularity from 2000 to 2010. In 2000, it ranked 70,473 and rose to rank 43,584 by 2010, marking an increase by 38.16%. Moreover, the count of individuals with this surname nearly doubled from 259 in 2000 to 495 in 2010, signifying a striking growth rate of 91.12%. Consequently, the proportion of the name Osuji per 100,000 people also escalated from 0.1 to 0.17, which is a 70% surge within a decade.
| 2000 | 2010 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | #70,473 | #43,584 | 38.16% |
| Count | 259 | 495 | 91.12% |
| Proportion per 100k | 0.1 | 0.17 | 70% |
Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Osuji
The ethnic identity associated with the surname Osuji saw a few changes as well between 2000 and 2010 according to the Decennial U.S. Census data. The majority of those bearing the Osuji surname identified as Black, with the percentage increasing from 92.28% in 2000 to 96.16% in 2010. Notably, there was also an emergence of White and Hispanic identities linked to the surname, both making up approximately 1% each of the total in 2010. The percentage of those identifying with two or more races, however, decreased dramatically from 5.41% in 2000 to just 1.21% in 2010. The survey recorded no individuals of Asian/Pacific Islander or American Indian and Alaskan Native ethnicity holding the Osuji surname for both census years.
| 2000 | 2010 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black | 92.28% | 96.16% | 4.2% |
| White | 0% | 1.62% | 0% |
| Two or More Races | 5.41% | 1.21% | -77.63% |
| Hispanic | 0% | 1.01% | 0% |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| American Indian and Alaskan Native | 0% | 0% | 0% |