Makeda is an African name traditionally linked with the Queen of Sheba in Ethiopian lore.
Makeda is one of the great names of African antiquity, most famously borne by the legendary Queen of Sheba as she is known in Ethiopian tradition. The Kebra Nagast — the Ethiopian national epic and sacred text compiled in the fourteenth century — records her name as Makeda and tells the story of her extraordinary journey to Jerusalem to seek the wisdom of King Solomon, and her subsequent son Menelik I, who became the progenitor of the Ethiopian imperial dynasty. In this tradition, Makeda is not merely a historical figure but a founding mother, the origin point of a civilization.
The name's etymology in Ge'ez, the classical Semitic language of Ethiopia, is debated, but it is often associated with meanings related to greatness, beauty, or splendor. Some scholars connect it to the root word for "pillar" or "greatness" — fitting for a woman who built a bridge between continents and cultures. The broader Semitic world knew her as Bilqis (in Arabic tradition) and simply as "the Queen of Sheba" in the Hebrew Bible, but Makeda is the name that Ethiopia preserved, and it carries the full weight of that civilization's pride and identity.
In contemporary usage, Makeda has found devoted followers among African and African diaspora communities who seek names that anchor children in a deep and glorious African heritage. It experienced a particular surge of interest during the Afrocentric naming movements of the 1970s and 1980s and has maintained steady appreciation since. The name is strong, musical, and entirely unambiguous in its sense of purpose — a name for someone the world should know.