I’m not sure what the meaning is, I just know that my company manages a highrise building full of Ethiopian immigrants and half of them seem to be named “Gebru”. The only thing more popular is some version of “selassie” included in their name (as tribute to Haile Selassie perhaps?), including “Gebreselassie” which seems to be a combination of the two words.
Hrm... Selassie means “trinity.”
We have an Eritrean clan in our church. “Gebremariam” is one of the names a lot of them have.
Yup...the surname Selassie is highly utilized.