Explore the Family Name Sahu

The meaning of Sahu

Indian (Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Odisha): Vaishya name, from Pali sahu ‘gentle’ (Sanskrit sadhu). Compare Saw, Sawh.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Sahu has shown a significant increase in popularity between the years 2000 and 2010. In 2000, the surname was ranked 64,934, but by 2010, it had jumped to rank 32,396, marking a remarkable rise of 50.11%. In terms of counts, the number of people with the Sahu surname more than doubled from 286 individuals in 2000 to 710 individuals in 2010. This signifies an impressive growth rate of 148.25%. The proportion of the surname Sahu per 100k people also increased by 118.18%, from 0.11 to 0.24.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#64,934	#32,396	50.11%
Count	286	710	148.25%
Proportion per 100k	0.11	0.24	118.18%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Sahu

In terms of ethnicity, the Decennial U.S. Census data illustrates that the majority of individuals with the Sahu surname identify as Asian/Pacific Islander. Between 2000 and 2010, this ethnic identity increased from representing 79.72% to 91.69% of all Sahus, a change of 15.02%. Meanwhile, those identifying as having two or more races decreased significantly by 64.76%, from 5.59% to 1.97%. Individuals with the Sahu surname who identified as White also decreased by 39.71%, dropping from 3.50% to 2.11%. The percentage of Sahus identifying as American Indian and Alaskan Native saw a steep decline of 74.26%, going down from 8.74% to 2.25%. There were no recorded changes for the Hispanic and Black categories during this period.

	2000	2010	Change
Asian/Pacific Islander	79.72%	91.69%	15.02%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	8.74%	2.25%	-74.26%
White	3.5%	2.11%	-39.71%
Two or More Races	5.59%	1.97%	-64.76%
Hispanic	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%