Explore the Family Name Purpura

The meaning of Purpura

Italian: from Latin or dialect purpura ‘red, purple’, possibly applied as a metonymic occupational name for someone who dyed cloth or made ecclesiastical robes. Some characteristic forenames: Italian Salvatore, Giacomo, Agostino, Carmello, Gabriella, Gaetano, Lia, Santo, Vito.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Purpura saw a slight decrease in popularity between 2000 and 2010. The popularity rank of the name slipped from 17,180 in 2000 to 18,676 in 2010, marking an 8.71% drop. The count of individuals with the surname also reduced slightly from 1,521 to 1,472, a 3.22% decline. Consequently, the proportion of people named Purpura per 100,000 decreased by 10.71% from 0.56 to 0.5.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#17,180	#18,676	-8.71%
Count	1,521	1,472	-3.22%
Proportion per 100k	0.56	0.5	-10.71%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Purpura

In terms of ethnicity, the data from the Decennial U.S. Census showed that the majority of individuals with the Purpura surname identified as White, although this group experienced a slight decrease of 1.55%, falling from 96.06% in 2000 to 94.57% in 2010. Interestingly, the number of Purpuras identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander and Hispanic saw significant increases of 47.83% and 49.21% respectively, bringing these populations to 1.36% and 2.85% of all Purpuras. The percentage of those identifying with two or more races fell by 11.76%. There were no reported instances of Purpuras identifying as Black or American Indian and Alaskan Native in either year.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.06%	94.57%	-1.55%
Hispanic	1.91%	2.85%	49.21%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.92%	1.36%	47.83%
Two or More Races	0.85%	0.75%	-11.76%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%