How common is the surname Makela?

1,642 people in the United States had the surname Makela in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 188,030 Americans. It ranked 17,249th of 162,253 surnames.

What ethnicity is the surname Makela?

In the 2010 Census, 87% of people named Makela identified as white (not Hispanic), and 4.5% as Asian and Pacific Islander.

Is the surname Makela getting more or less common?

More common. 1,337 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 1,642 in 2010, up 23%.

The surname Makela

A Finnish surname, carried by 1,642 people in the United States.

3 syllables Soundex M240

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Makela is more common than 89.4% of them.

Origin

Finnish origin

Borrowed from Finnish Mäkelä.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 1,642 people named Makela in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 188,030 Americans. That is up 23% since 2000, when the Census counted 1,337.

#17,249

rank among US surnames

1,642

people in 2010

0.6

per 100,000 Americans

+22.8%

change since 2000 (was #18,892)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#17,249	Makela	1,642	188,030
#17,258	Elders	1,641	188,145

Who is named Makela

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

87% of people named Makela identified as white (not Hispanic), 4.5% as Asian and Pacific Islander and 4.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

White (not Hispanic) 87%
Asian and Pacific Islander 4.5%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 4.3%
Black (not Hispanic) 2.4%

The Census suppresses very small shares to protect privacy; Native American, Multiracial are not shown.

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Makela

Makela has the Soundex code M240, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code M240.

Questions

Where does the surname Makela come from?: Borrowed from Finnish Mäkelä.
How common is the surname Makela?: 1,642 people in the United States had the surname Makela in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 188,030 Americans. It ranked 17,249th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Makela?: In the 2010 Census, 87% of people named Makela identified as white (not Hispanic), and 4.5% as Asian and Pacific Islander.
Is the surname Makela getting more or less common?: More common. 1,337 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 1,642 in 2010, up 23%.