maki Family History Facts 1920

maki Name Meaning and History

Finnish (Mäki): from Finnish mäki ‘hill’, originally a habitational name from a farm so named. From the late 19th century, when under the requirements of the Church people without surnames began to acquire them, this was one of the many words from nature that were adopted as surnames. During the name conversion movement in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Mäki was much used as a substitute for Swedish surnames formed with berg or back ‘hill’. In the U.S. Maki may be a short form of Mäkinen (see Makinen) or other names based on this element. It has sometimes been translated as Hill.
Japanese: ‘pasture’; found in the island of Kyushu, but not common in Japan proper, it appears to originate in the Ryukyuan island of Amami.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4

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