Melaku
An Amharic name meaning "He has risen" or "resurrection".
Name Census estimates that about 5 living Americans carry the first name Melaku. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Melaku today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Melaku births was 1993 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Melaku. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Melaku. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
5
~ 1 in 68,550,868 Americans
Peak year
1993
5 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
1993 SSA rank
#9,667
Tracked since 1993
Census
Melaku in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 377 people with the first name Melaku, which placed it at #25,213 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#25,213
National first-name rank
People counted
377
377 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
97.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Melaku
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Melaku is Black at 97.3%. The next largest groups are White (1.6%) and Hispanic (0.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Melaku described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Melaku at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American97.3% · 367
- White1.6% · 6
- Hispanic or Latino0.5% · 2
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 2
Popularity
Melaku: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Melaku by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Melaku during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 5 | 0 | 5 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Melaku
The name Melaku has its roots in the Semitic languages of the Horn of Africa, particularly the Amharic language spoken in Ethiopia. It is believed to have originated sometime during the ancient Aksumite Empire, which ruled the region from around the 1st century BCE to the 7th century CE.
Melaku is derived from the Amharic word "melak," which means "king" or "ruler." This suggests that the name may have initially been used to denote someone of royal or noble lineage. It is possible that the name was first bestowed upon members of the Aksumite royal family or aristocracy.
In ancient Ethiopian texts, such as the Kebra Nagast (Glory of Kings), which dates back to the 14th century, there are references to individuals bearing the name Melaku. However, it is difficult to determine the earliest recorded use of the name due to the scarcity of written records from that period.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Melaku was Melaku Tsinat, a 16th-century Ethiopian ruler who reigned as the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1559 to 1563. He is remembered for his efforts to consolidate power and defend the kingdom against external threats.
Another notable figure was Melaku Sayfu, a 19th-century Ethiopian military leader and governor who played a significant role in the expansion and consolidation of the Ethiopian Empire under Emperor Tewodros II in the mid-1800s.
In more recent history, Melaku Beyen was an Ethiopian diplomat and politician who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Ethiopia from 1947 to 1958. He played a crucial role in negotiating the revision of the Ethio-Eritrean Treaty of 1900.
Melaku Fenta was an Ethiopian long-distance runner who competed in the 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics. He won a bronze medal in the 10,000 meters event at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first Ethiopian to win an Olympic medal in athletics.
Melaku Tefera is a contemporary Ethiopian long-distance runner who has won numerous international marathons and made significant contributions to the country's running success in recent years.
While the name Melaku is predominantly found in Ethiopia and among the Ethiopian diaspora, it has also gained some popularity in other parts of the world due to cultural exchanges and migrations. However, its origins and historical significance remain deeply rooted in the ancient civilizations of the Horn of Africa.
People
Melaku + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Melaku as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Melaku: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Melaku?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Melaku going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 68,550,868 US residents.
Is Melaku a common name?
We classify Melaku as "Very Rare". It ranks above 18.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Melaku most popular?
The single biggest year for Melaku was 1993, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Melaku is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Melaku in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 377 people with the name Melaku, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,213 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Melaku in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Melaku?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Melaku appears almost entirely male. Of the 375 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Melaku?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Melaku is Black at 97.3%. The next largest groups are White (1.6%) and Hispanic (0.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Melaku most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Melaku in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.3% (367 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Melaku in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Melaku a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Melaku in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Melaku still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Melaku in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Melaku can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Melaku?
Want to know how many people have the name Melaku? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.