Explore the Family Name Petrou

The meaning of Petrou

Greek: patronymic from the genitive case of the personal name Petros (see Peter). Some characteristic forenames: Greek Demetrios, Evangelos, Argirios, Charalambos, Dimitris, Ioana, Isidoros, Pavlos, Takis, Vasilios.

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

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

According to the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname Petrou has seen a slight decline between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it ranked as the 53,191st most common surname in the United States, dropping to the 55,619th spot by 2010, marking a change of -4.56%. However, the actual count of individuals with this surname increased slightly from 365 in 2000 to 369 in 2010, showing a growth rate of 1.1%. Nevertheless, when measuring the frequency of the surname per 100,000 people, there was a decrease from 0.14 in 2000 to 0.13 in 2010, representing a drop of -7.14%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#53,191	#55,619	-4.56%
Count	365	369	1.1%
Proportion per 100k	0.14	0.13	-7.14%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Petrou

Regarding the ethnic identity associated with the surname Petrou, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals some interesting trends. The majority of people identified as White, making up 95.34% in 2000 and growing to 98.10% in 2010, an increase of 2.89%. A small percentage identified as Hispanic, comprising 1.37% in 2000 and increasing slightly to 1.63% in 2010, a rise of 18.98%. In 2000, 3.01% reported being of two or more ethnicities, but this category was recorded as 0 in 2010. There were no individuals with the surname Petrou who identified as Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, or American Indian and Alaskan Native during both census years.

	2000	2010	Change
White	95.34%	98.1%	2.89%
Hispanic	1.37%	1.63%	18.98%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Two or More Races	3.01%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%