1000 Most Common Last Names in Argentina

Spanish (González): patronymic from the personal name Gonzalo, a personal name of Visigothic origin, based on the Germanic element gunþ ‘battle’. Compare Portuguese Gonçalves (see Goncalves).

Spanish (Rodríguez) and Portuguese: patronymic from the personal name Rodrigo.

Spanish (Gómez): from a medieval personal name, probably of Visigothic origin, from guma ‘man’. Compare Gomes.

Spanish (Fernández): patronymic from the personal name Fernando. The surname (and to a lesser extent the variant Hernandez) has also been established in southern Italy, mainly in Naples and Palermo, since the period of Spanish dominance there, and as a result of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal at the end of the 15th century, many of whom moved to Italy.

Spanish (López): patronymic from the medieval personal name Lope (from Latin lupus ‘wolf’). This is one of the commonest of all Spanish surnames.

Spanish (Díaz): patronymic from the medieval personal name Didacus (see Diego).

Spanish (Martínez): patronymic from the personal name Martin.

Spanish (Pérez) and Jewish (Sephardic): patronymic from the personal name Pedro, Spanish equivalent of Peter. Jewish: variant of Peretz.

Spanish (García) and Portuguese: from a medieval personal name of uncertain origin. It is normally found in medieval records in the Latin form Garsea, and may well be of pre-Roman origin, perhaps akin to Basque (h)artz ‘bear’.

Spanish (Sánchez): patronymic from the personal name Sancho.

Spanish: nickname from romero ‘pilgrim’, originally ‘pilgrim to Rome’ (see Romeo).

Spanish: probably a Castilianized or Americanized form of Sousa, or (less likely) from sosa ‘seaweed’.

Galician, Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese, and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of the numerous places named Torres, all named with the plural of torre ‘tower’ (see Torre). Italian: habitational name from Torres in Belluno or Porto Torres in Sassari. In southern Italy the surname is sometimes a borrowing from Spanish (see 1). Dutch: from a short form of Victoris, from the Latin personal name Victorius.

Spanish (Álvarez): from a patronymic form of the personal name Álvaro (see Alvaro).

Spanish: patronymic from the personal name Ruy, a short formnof Rodrigo. DK, kh, RS

Spanish (Ramírez): patronymic from the personal name Ramiro, composed of the Germanic elements ragin ‘counsel’ + mari, meri ‘fame’.

Spanish: from the plural of flor ‘flower’.

Spanish (Benítez): patronymic from Benito.

Portuguese and Spanish: altered form (by misdivision) of Da Costa.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the several places, as for example Medina-Sidonia in Cádiz province and Medina del Campo in Valladolid, so called from Arabic medina ‘city’. The surname is also borne by Sephardic Jews.

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from villages so called in the provinces of Seville and Badajoz, from a word meaning ‘iron smithy’, ‘blacksmith’s forge’ (a derivative of hierro ‘iron’, Latin ferrum). French: habitational name from the Gascon form of Ferrière, a place in Pyrénées-Atlantique. The place name is derived from Latina ferraria ‘iron-mine’, ‘iron-forge’.

Spanish (Suárez): occupational name for a swineherd, Latin Suerius. Compare Portuguese Soares.

Spanish form of Basque Agirre, a topographic name from Basque ager, agir ‘open space’, ‘pasture’. This is found as the first element of several place names, reflected in surnames such as Aguirrezabal(a) ‘broad open space’; the modern surname may be a shortening of any of these.

Spanish (Giménez): variant of Jiménez (see Jimenez).

Spanish (Gutiérrez): patronymic from the medieval personal name Gutierre, from a Visigothic personal name of uncertain form and meaning, perhaps a compound of the elements gunþi ‘battle’ + hairus ‘sword’.

Portuguese and Galician: variant spelling of Pereira.

Spanish: habitational name from places in Burgos or Lugo (Galicia) named Rojas, from a derivative of rojo ‘red’.

Spanish and Catalan: habitational name from any of numerous places named Molina, in particular the one in Guadalajara province.

Galician, Portuguese, Italian, and Jewish (Sephardic): topographic name from castro ‘castle’, ‘fortress’ (Latin castrum ‘fort’, ‘Roman walled city’): in Galicia and also in northern Portugal a habitational name from any of various places named with this word; in Italy either a topographic name or a habitational name.

Spanish: patronymic from the Basque personal name Orti (Latin Fortunius).

Portuguese, Galician, and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of the many places called Silva, or a topographic name from silva ‘thicket’, ‘bramble’.

Spanish: habitational name from places called Luna in Zaragoza, Araba, and Lleón provinces. Jewish (Sephardic): from the female personal name Luna (Spanish luna ‘moon’).

Spanish (Juárez): regional variant of Suárez (see Suarez).

Catalan and Spanish: habitational name from any of various minor places called Cabrera, from Late Latin capraria ‘place of goats’ (a derivative of Latin capra ‘goat’).

Galician and Spanish (Ríos): habitational name from any of the places called Ríos, predominantly in Galicia. Spanish (Ríós): habitational name from Ríós in Ourense, Galicia.

Spanish: topographic name from the plural of moral ‘mulberry tree’.

Galician: habitational name from Godoy, a place in Galicia. The origin of the place name is uncertain, but a connection has been suggested with the Gothic elements gu{dh}s ‘god’ + wihs ‘saint’.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Jewish (Sephardic): nickname for someone with dark hair and a swarthy complexion, from Spanish and Portuguese moreno ‘dark-haired’, a word of uncertain origin, probably from Late Latin maurinus, a derivative of classical Latin Maurus ‘Moor’. Compare Moore 2.

Galician and Portuguese: variant of Ferreira.

Spanish (Domínguez): patronymic from the personal name Domingo.

Aragonese, Catalan, and Spanish: habitational name from any of the places in Aragon, Catalonia, and Navarre called Peralta, from Latin petra alta ‘high rock’. This name is also established in Italy.

Spanish: from castillo ‘castle’, ‘fortified building’ (Latin castellum), a habitational name from any of numerous places so named or named with this word.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places called Ledesma, in the provinces of Logroño, Salamanca, and Soria. The place name is ancient and probably derives from a superlative form of a Celtic adjective meaning ‘broad’, ‘wide’.

Galician: habitational name from Quiroga, a place in Lugo province, so named from the plant queiroga, quiroga ‘erica’.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Vega or La Vega, from vega ‘meadow’ (of pre-Roman origin, probably originally denoting irrigated land).

Spanish (especially southern Spain): habitational name from any of various places called Vera or La Vera, named with vera ‘river bank’.

Spanish: habitational name from Ojeda in Burgos province or from the valley of Ojeda in Palencia province, which is probably named with a reduced form of Latin folia ‘leaves’ + the collective suffix -eta.

Spanish and French: from the medieval personal name Ponce, ultimately from Pontius, a Roman family name of uncertain origin, perhaps an ethnic name for someone from Pontus (named with Greek pontos ‘ocean’) in Asia Minor, or an Italic cognate of Latin Quintus ‘fifth’ (i.e. ‘fifth-born’). The name was borne by two 3rd-century saints, a Carthaginian deacon and a martyr of Nice, but was not widely popular in the Middle Ages because of the inhibiting influence of the even more famous Pontius Pilate. In some cases, though, the surname may have been originally used for someone who had played the part of this character in a religious play.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the various places named Villalba, from villa ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + albo, feminine alba ‘white’ (Latin alba).

Spanish and Portuguese: variant of Cardoso. This name is also found in western India, where it was taken by Portuguese colonists.

Spanish, Italian, and Jewish (Sephardic) (of Basque origin): regional name denoting someone from Navarre (see Navarra).

Spanish and Portuguese: from Italian colonnello, a diminutive of colonna ‘column (of troops)’ (Latin columna), hence a metonymic occupational name for someone in command of a regiment. According to Tibon, the change of -l- to -r- may be under the influence of the word corona ‘crown’ as a symbol of power.

Galician and Spanish (Vázquez): variant of Vásquez (see Vasquez).

Portugese and Spanish: habitational name from any of the towns called Ramos, in Portugal and Spain. Portuguese and Spanish: from the plural of ramo ‘branch’ (Latin ramus), a topographic name for someone who lived in a thickly wooded area.

Spanish and Portuguese: habitational name from Vargas in Santander province, or a topographic name from vargas, plural of varga, a dialect term used in various senses: ‘(thatched) hut’, ‘steep slope’, or ‘fenced pastureland which becomes waterlogged in winter’.

Spanish (Cáceres): habitational name from the city of Cáceres in Estremadura, named with the plural of Arabic al-qa?sr ‘the citadel’.

Spanish: from the popular medieval personal name Arias which is probably of Germanic origin. Jewish (Sephardic): adoption of the Spanish family name.

Galician: habitational name from any of the places in Galicia named Figueroa, from a derivative of figueira ‘fig tree’.

Spanish (Córdoba): habitational name from the city of Córdoba in southern Spain, of extremely ancient foundation and unknown etymology.

Spanish: possibly from correa ‘leather strap’, ‘belt’, ‘rein’, ‘shoelace’, plural correas (Latin corrigia ‘fastening’, from corrigere ‘to straighten’, ‘to correct’), applied as a metonymic occupational name for a maker or seller of such articles.

nickname for an ugly or stupid person, from Spanish mal donado ‘ill-favored’. The phrase is a compound of mal ‘badly’ + donado ‘given’, ‘endowed’, past participle of donare ‘to give’, ‘to bestow’. habitational name from Maldonado, a village in the province of Albacete.

Spanish and Portuguese: from the Marian epithet paz ‘peace’ (Latin pax, genitive pacis): María de la Paz (Spanish), Maria da Paz (Portuguese). The name was often assumed, as an approximate translation of the Hebrew personal name Shelomo, by Jews converted to Christianity.

Spanish and Galician: habitational name from any of the places in Galicia, Santander, and Cáceres named Rivero, from ribero ‘bank’, ‘shore’ (Late Latin riparium, a derivative of ripa ‘bank’).

Spanish, Portuguese, and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of numerous places in Spain and Portugal called Miranda. The derivation of the place name is uncertain; it may be of pre-Roman origin, or from Latin miranda ‘view’, ‘outlook’. This name is also found in western India, where it was taken by Portuguese colonists.

Spanish: habitational name from Mansilla, a place in La Rioja province.

Portuguese (and Spanish): apparently a plural form of Faria. Southern Italian: topographic name from Greek pharias, a derivative of pharos ‘beacon’, ‘lighthouse’.

variant of Rolando. habitational name from either of two towns named Roldán, in Murcia province.

Galician (Méndez): patronymic from the personal name Mendo (see Mendes, of which this is the Galician equivalent).

Spanish (Guzmán): of uncertain and disputed etymology, probably from a Germanic personal name. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): variant of Gusman.

Spanish and Aragonese (Agüero): habitational name from places in the provinces of Uesca (Aragon) and Santander named Agüero or from Puente Agüero in Santander province. They are probably named from Late Latin (vicus) aquarius ‘well-watered (settlement)’.

Spanish (Hernández) and Jewish (Sephardic): patronymic from the personal name Hernando (see Fernando). This surname also became established in southern Italy, mainly in Naples and Palermo, since the period of Spanish dominance there, and as a result of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal at the end of the 15th century, many of whom moved to Italy.

Spanish: nickname from lucero, a derivative of luz ‘light’, which has variety of meanings including ‘morning or evening star’, ‘star or blaze marking on a horse’.

Spanish and Portuguese: from a common and widespread religious Christian personal name from cruz ‘cross’ (Latin crux), or a habitational name from any of numerous places named Cruz or La Cruz, from this word.

Spanish form (Páez) of Portuguese and Galician Pais.

Spanish: topographic name for someone who lived in a place overgrown with broom, from a collective form of escoba ‘broom’ (Late Latin scopa), or a habitational name from any of the various places named with this word: for example, Escobar de Campos (León), Escobar de Polendos (Segovia), and three minor places in Murcia.

Basque: habitational name from several places in the provinces of Arava and Biscay called Mendoza, named with Basque mendi ‘mountain’ + otz ‘cold’ + the definite article -a.

One who came from Barrios (district, suburb); the name of many places in Spain.Popular surname found in most of the Peninsula, but mainly in northern areas: Leon, Vizcaya, and Burgos. Over 30 towns and villages in all parts of Spain with this name which implies a political subdivision, a ward or suburb.

Spanish, Asturian-Leonese, and Galician: topographic name from the plural of busto ‘meadow’, ‘willow’, or a habitational name from either of the places so named, in León and Galicia (see Busto).

Spanish (Ávila): habitational name from Ávila in old Castile. Its name, first recorded in the Latin forms Avela and Abulia, is of unknown derivation and meaning. Portuguese and Galician: from Davila, a topographic name for someone from a town or village, da vila, reinterpreted as d’Avila.

Basque: habitational name or topographic name from Basque ai ‘slope’, ‘hillside’ + al(h)a ‘pasture’.

Spanish: nickname for a man with white or fair hair or a pale complexion, from blanco ‘white’. Italian (Sicily): variant of Bianco, perhaps influenced by French blanc and Spanish (see 1 above).

Ancient surname found in €oria, Navarre, Aragon, Castile, Estremadura, and Andalusia. Name of village near Osma and province in Spain. Means of or from Soria but origin and meaning unknown."Oria" is a variant of "aurea" and in a figurative sense means charming.

Spanish: habitational name a place called Leiva, chiefly the one in La Rioja province and to a lesser extent the one in Murcia.

Portuguese: from the personal name Duarte, Portuguese equivalent of Edward.

Spanish: habitational name for someone from Moya, from an adjectival form of the place name.

Portuguese: topographic name from campos ‘fields’, denoting someone who lived in the countryside as opposed to a town.

habitational name from any of numerous places named Soto or El Soto, from soto ‘grove’, ‘small wood’ (Latin saltus). Castilianized spelling of Asturian-Leonese Sotu, a habitational name from a town so named in Asturies. Castilianized spelling of the Galician equivalent, Souto.

English, Scottish, Irish, French, Dutch, German, Czech, Slovak, Spanish (Martín), Italian (Venice), etc.: from a personal name (Latin Martinus, a derivative of Mars, genitive Martis, the Roman god of fertility and war, whose name may derive ultimately from a root mar ‘gleam’). This was borne by a famous 4th-century saint, Martin of Tours, and consequently became extremely popular throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. As a North American surname, this form has absorbed many cognates from other European forms. English: habitational name from any of several places so called, principally in Hampshire, Lincolnshire, and Worcestershire, named in Old English as ‘settlement by a lake’ (from mere or mær ‘pool’, ‘lake’ + tun ‘settlement’) or as ‘settlement by a boundary’ (from (ge)mære ‘boundary’ + tun ‘settlement’). The place name has been charged from Marton under the influence of the personal name Martin.

Spanish: variant spelling of Valdés (see Valdes).

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname from bravo ‘fierce’, ‘violent’, ‘courageous’ (from Latin barbarus ‘barbarian’, ‘ruffian’).

Spanish (Chávez): variant spelling of Chaves.

Spanish (Velázquez): variant of Velasquez.

Catalan, Portuguese, and Spanish: topographic name from olivera ‘olive tree’. In some cases a Castilianized spelling of Galician Oliveira.

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from the city in central Spain, which was the capital of the Visigothic state between the 6th and 8th centuries. Its role declined for three centuries after the Muslim invasion of Spain, until it was taken as the capital of the kingdom of Castile between the 11th and 16th centuries. It was a major cultural and political center throughout the Middle Ages, and was also the home of an important Jewish community. The place name, first recorded in Latin as Toletum, is of obscure etymology, possibly connected with Toleto in Piedmont; Jewish tradition connects it with Hebrew toledot ‘generations’, but this is no more than folk etymology.

Spanish and Italian: from a personal name, in origin an ethnic name for a Frank, a member of the Germanic people who inhabited the lands around the river Rhine in Roman times. See also Frank. The personal name was popularized by the cult of San Franco di Assergi. Italian and Spanish: nickname or status name from franco ‘free’ (usually denoting a freed slave). Jewish (Sephardic): adoption of the Spanish surname.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: habitational name from any of various places in Spain, Portugal, and Italy called Montenegro (‘black mountain’).

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname for a thin person, from Spanish, Portuguese delgado ‘slender’ (Latin delicatus ‘dainty’, ‘exquisite’, a derivative of deliciae ‘delight’, ‘joy’).

Spanish: habitational name from places in the provinces of Santander and Navarra called Arce. Their name is a Castilianized spelling of Basque artze ‘stony place’ (from arri ‘stone’ + the suffix of abundance -tz(e)).

Basque: habitational name from any of several places in the Basque Country named Ibarra, from ibar ‘meadow’ + the definite article -a.

Gallardo is a word originally used after a name to distinguish between others of the same name which eventually developed into a surname. It means "elegant, graceful."Refers to someone who is full of life and valiant and probably comes from the latin "galleus" which has a similar meaning.

Spanish (Castilian and Galician): topographic name from Old Spanish acebedo, azevedo ‘holly grove’ (from azevo ‘holly’ + -edo ‘plantation’). This name is common in Tenerife.

Spanish, Catalan, and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of numerous places called Aguilar, from Latin aquilare ‘haunt of eagles’ (a derivative of aquila ‘eagle’), for example Aguilar de Campo in Palencia, Aguilar de la Frontera in Córdoba, and Aguilar de Segarra in Catalonia.

Spanish: plural variant of Vallejo.

Spanish: habitational name from Conteraras, a place in the province of Burgos. The place name is derived from Late Latin contraria ‘surrounding area’, ‘region’ (from the preposition contra ‘opposite’, ‘against’, ‘hard by’).

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname from alegre ‘bright’, ‘merry’ (Latin alacer).

Spanish (Galván): from a medieval personal name. This is in origin the Latin name Galbanus (a derivative of the Roman family name Galba, of uncertain origin). However, it was used in a number of medieval romances as an equivalent of the Celtic name Gawain (see Gavin), and it is probably this association that was mainly responsible for its popularity in the Middle Ages.

Spanish: habitational name from Oviedo, Spanish form of Asturian-Leonese Uviéu, name of the regional capital of Asturies, found in early records in the Latin form Ovetum.

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places, for example Aranda de Duero in Burgos province, which bears a name of pre-Roman, probably Celtic, origin.

Spanish (Báez): of uncertain derivation, but possibly a variant of Paez.

One who came from Sandoval, in Spain.The latin "sancto-vallis" - holy valley - provides the meaning of this surname. One who dwells in a holy valley.Castilian name from political subdivision of Villadiego (Burgos), and descended from Count Fernán-González.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

French (Véron): nickname for someone with bi-colored eyes, from Latin varius ‘diverse’, ‘varying’. Spanish (Verón): unexplained.

Basque: habitational name from Gauna, a place in Araba province, Basque Country.

Basque: habitational name from Zarate, a place in Araba province, named from Basque zara ‘thicket’.

Basque: habitational name from any of various places, for example in the province of Araba, Basque Country, so named from the plural of Late Latin heredium ‘hereditary estate’ (a derivative of heres), i.e. one that could be passed on to the heirs of its tenant instead of reverting to the overlord.

Spanish: from mercado ‘market’, topographic name for someone living by a market or metonymic occupational name for a market trader.

Spanish (Monzón): habitational name from Monzón, a place in Uesca province, which is probably named from Latin montione ‘big mountain’.

Spanish (Márquez): patronymic from the personal name Marcos.

Spanish: habitational name from Coria in Cáceres province (Latin Caurium), or from Coria del Río, a place in Seville province.

Spanish: habitational name from the city of this name in central Spain. The place name is of uncertain origin (possibly based on a Celtic element sego ‘victory’).

Italian and Spanish: from the personal name Romano, Latin Romanus, borne by several saints and martyrs. This was originally a byname for someone from Rome or for a Roman citizen, from Roma ‘Rome’. See also Roman. Italian: (Romanò): in Calabria, a term for someone from Nea Rhome ‘New Rome’, a medieval Greek name for Constantinople.

Spanish (Jiménez): patronymic from the medieval personal name Jimeno, which is of pre-Roman origin.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Salinas, from the plural of salina ‘saltworks’ (Latin salinae, a derivative of sal ‘salt’).

Spanish: plural of Quintero, probably from a place name.

Spanish and Catalan: topographic name for someone who lived near a gate or fence, from Spanish and Catalan barrera ‘barrier’. topographic name for someone who lived by a clay pit, Spanish barrera, barrero (a derivative of barro ‘mud’, ‘clay’).

Spanish (from Galician): habitational name from Ortega in A Coruña province. Spanish: nickname from ortega ‘(female) black grouse’ (from Greek ortyx ‘quail’). Southern French (Occitan): topographic name from Occitan ortiga ‘nettle’ (Latin urtica, French ortie).

Portuguese and Galician: habitational name from any of the many places named with Late Latin capralis ‘place of goats’, from Latin capra ‘goat’.

Spanish: variant (plural) of Palacio.

Spanish, Catalan, Asturian-Leonese, and Galician: habitational name from any of the numerous places, large and small, named Quintana, from quintana ‘country house’ (originally having a tax liability of one fifth of the annual produce). variant of French Quintaine, from an Old French term denoting a post for jousting practice, hence a nickname for one who was skilled at this.

Spanish: metonymic occupational name for a cobbler or shoemaker, from zapato ‘half boot’. Spanish and Galician: possibly also a habitational name from the places in Pontevedra and Ávila called Zapata.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Rosales, from the plural of rosal, collective of rosa ‘rose’ (see Rosal). Galician (Rosalés): name for someone from Rosal, a town in Baixo Miñ district in Galicia.

Spanish: habitational name for someone from any of several place called Altamira, for example the one in the province of Ávila which is famous for its spectacular cave paintings.

Spanish (Bazán; of Basque origin): Castilianized form of Basque Baztan, a habitational name from Baztan in Navarre province, named from Basque aza, azta ‘bramble’ + the locative suffix -an, with the addition of initial B-. Polish and Ukrainian: from Polish ba?zant ‘pheasant’ (from Middle High German fasan(t)), hence a nickname for someone thought to resemble the bird in some way.

Spanish: from the personal name Alonso, a cognate of Alfonso.

Spanish: habitational name from Burgos, the capital of old Castile.

Spanish: habitational name from Bustamante in Santander province, so named with Late Latin bustum Amantii ‘pasture (see Busto) of Amantius’, a personal name derived from Late Latin Amans, genitive Amantis, meaning ‘loving’.

Galician: habitational name from any of the places in Galicia named Varela, from a diminutive of vara ‘rod’, ‘stick’. Greek (Varelas): from Greek varela ‘barrel’, from Italian barella ‘barrel’. Accented on the final syllable, varelás is a metonymic occupational name for a cooper; with the accent on the middle syllable, varélas is a nickname for a large fat man.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Soria province, named Aguilera from aguilera ‘eagle’s nest’ (from Latin aquilaria ‘place of eagles’).

Spanish, Galician and Portuguese: topographic name for someone who lived in a lean-to built against the wall of a larger building, from Spanish pared, Portuguese and Galician parede ‘(house) wall’. Servants often lived in buildings of this sort outside manor houses, and masons constructed huts of this kind on the site of their labors, making temporary use of the walls of the new building. There are also numerous places named with this word, and the surname may also be a habitational name from any of these.

Spanish (Ávalos): habitational name from Ábalos, a place near Haro in Soria province, on the edge of the Basque country. A Basque origin of the place name has been suggested, involving the stem abar- ‘kermes oak’, but this is highly conjectural.

nickname for someone with a peculiarity of the neck, cuello (Latin collum). Castilianized form of Asturian-Leonese Cuellu, a habitational name from a place in Asturies called Cuellu.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: from a personal name bestowed in honor of the great theologian St. Thomas Aquinas (Tommaso d’Aquino in Italian). Italian: habitational name from a place called Aquino (see D'aquino).

Spanish: habitational name from either of two places in Badajoz province, probably so called from Latin villa Aureliana ‘estate of Aurelius’ (see Orell).

Spanish: occupational name from caballero ‘knight’, ‘soldier’, ‘horseman’ (from Late Latin caballarius ‘mounted soldier’).

Spanish: habitational name from a place so named in Burgos or variant from Reinoso de Cerrata in the province of Palencia, Reinoso meaning ‘place of fields’.

plural variant of Rey. Castilianized form of the Galician habitational name Reis.

Spanish: habitational name from any of several places named Villar(r)eal, from Spanish villa ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + real ‘royal’ (Latin regalis), as for example Villarreal de San Carlos in Cáceres. The places were so named from having some particular connection with the Crown. in some cases, variant of Catalan Vila-real, from the town named Vila-real in Castelló de la Plana provinve.

Spanish (Alarcón): habitational name, most probably from Alarcón in Cuenca province.

Spanish and Portuguese: from a personal name of uncertain, possibly pre-Roman, origin.

This could be onomatopoeic Spanish for the sound "tap."Found in Asturias. Name of villages near Leon and Oviedo. Derived from word "toppa" meaning a wall made from mud.Basque word meaning a place of the cranberries.Castilian name.

One who came from Galarza (stone mound), in Spain.Galarza comes from a Basque word meaning "abedulal" or place of the birch trees.Basque name from parish of Galarza in political subdivision of Vergara (Guipúzcoa). Later went to Vizcaya, Álava, and Navarre.

Galician: topographic name meaning ‘the field’, from the Galician definite article o (masculine singular) + campo ‘field’ (Latin campus), or habitational name from a town of this name in Lugo province, Galicia.

possibly Basque: unexplained.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: nickname for an aggressive person or for a soldier, from an agent derivative of guerra ‘war’. Compare Guerra.

Spanish, Galician, Aragonese, and Portuguese: habitational name from any of the numerous places called with Salas, like Salas and Salas de los Barrios, (Galicia), Salas de los Infantes, (Burgos province), Salas Altas and Salas Baxas (Aragon), from the plural of Sala. Catalan and Asturian-Leonese: variant of Sales. Americanized spelling of Hungarian Szálas, a nickname from szálas ‘tall’.

Spanish (Frías) and Portuguese: habitational name from any of various places, for example in the provinces of Burgos and Teruel, so called from the feminine plural form of the adjective frío ‘cold’ (Latin frigidus); a noun such as aguas ‘waters’ or fuentes ‘springs’ has been lost.

Spanish: habitational name any of the various places in southern Spain named Jara or La Jara, from jara ‘rockrose’, ‘cistus’.

Basque: Castilianized form of Garai, a habitational name from Garai, in Biscay, Basque Country, or from one of the five other, smaller places of the same name, also in Biscay, all named from Basque garai ‘high’, a derivative of gara ‘height’, ‘peak’. Hungarian: habitational name for someone from a place called Gara.

Italian: patronymic from Rosso. This is the commonest surname in Italy. It is also found as a family name in Greece.

probably a variant spelling of Spanish Lazcano, a habitational name from Basque Lazkao, a town in Gipuzkoa province.

Spanish: habitational name from places named Valenzuela in Córdoba and Ciudad Real. The place name is a diminutive of Valencia, literally ‘Little Valencia’.

Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese: habitational name from Oliva in Valencia, Santa Oliva in Girona, or possibly from any of the places in Extremadura named La Oliva, from Latin oliva ‘olive’. Italian (mainly southern and Ligurian): from Latin oliva ‘olive’; a topographic name for someone who lived by an olive tree or grove, or a metonymic occupational name for a gatherer or seller of olives or an extractor or seller of olive oil, or perhaps in some cases a nickname for someone with a sallow complexion. German: habitational name from Oliva, a place now in Gdansk voivodeship, Poland.

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places named with fuentes, plural of fuente ‘spring’, ‘well’ (see Fuente), as for example Fuentes (Cuenca, Albacete, and Segovia provinces), Fuentes Calientes (Teruel), Fuentes de León (Badajoz), Fuentes de Valdepero (Palencia).

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Robledo, from robledo ‘oak wood’, a derivative of roble ‘oak’.

Portuguese (Espíndola): of uncertain origin, but possibly a topographic name. It was taken to Portugal by an immigrant family from Genoa, Italy.

Spanish: nickname for someone descended from a prominent elder in a community or one whose memory was respected, from Spanish nieto ‘grandson’ (Latin nepos, genitive nep(o)tis, ‘grandson’, ‘nephew’).

Portuguese, Galician, and Jewish (Sephardic): topographic name from Portuguese pereira ‘pear tree’, or a habitational name from a place named with this word in Portugal and Galicia. The surname is also common in western India, having been taken there by Portuguese colonists.

Spanish and Portuguese: variant of Andrade.

Portuguese and Galician: of uncertain derivation; possibly from a derivative of maça ‘apple’. Polish: from a derivative of the personal name Maciej (see Matthew).

Basque: habitational name from Funes, a place in Navarre province, Basque Country.

Spanish: topographic name from the plural of roble ‘oak’, or a habitational name from Los Robles in Lleón, named from the same word.

This word seems like a variation of "sotero" which means "Salvador" or savior.Galician name.

Spanish: variant of Cortés (see Cortes).

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Rivas or Ribas, a variant of Ribas. in some cases, variant of Catalan Ribes (see Ribas).

Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Dutch, and German: from the personal name Gil, from French Gille(s), from Latin Aegidius (see Giles). German: from Slavic gil ‘bullfinch’, probably a nickname for a simpleton.

Spanish: habitational name from Villegas, a place in Burgos province.

Spanish (Calderón): topographic name from an augmentative of caldera ‘basin’, ‘crater’, ‘hollow’, a common element of stream and mountain names, or a habitational name from a place named with this word, as for example Calderón in Valencia province. Alternatively, it may be a metonymic occupational name from the same word in the sense ‘kettle’, ‘cauldron’.

Basque: Castilianized variant of Basque Bergara, a habitational name from places so called (earlier Virgara) in the provinces of Gipuzkoa and Navarre. The place name is of uncertain derivation; the second element is gara ‘hill’, ‘height’, ‘eminence’, but the first has not been satisfactorily identified.

Spanish: variant of Carbajal.

Spanish: habitational name from a place called Ceballos, a district of Santander.

"Gallus," the latin word signifies "rooster."Ancient surname from Galicia, but also found in Asturias, Castile, Burgos, Andalusia and Valencia. Derived from latin "galleus" - a cock, rooster, or male fowl.In addition to meaning rooster, this word also means a strong type of pasture.

Galician name originating in Portugal.

Spanish: habitational name from any various places in Spain and Portugal called Alderete, Aldarete, or Aldrete, probably from a Gothic personal name.

Spanish: occupational name for a squire, a young man of good birth attendant on a knight, or shield bearer, escudero (medieval Latin scutarius, a derivative of Latin scutum ‘shield’).

Galician: habitational name from any of the places in the Galician provinces of Ourense and Lugo named Saavedra, from saa ‘hall’ (from Gothic sals ‘main house’) + vedro ‘old’ (Latin vetus).

Spanish (also found in Portugal and Brazil): topographic name for someone who lived by a mountain ridge or chain of hills, from an adjectival derivative of serra.

Portuguese: habitational name from a place near Lisbon named Almada, from almádena ‘ore mine’ (from Arabic al-ma?aden).

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Espinosa, from a collective form of espina ‘thorn’.

Spanish and Asturian-Leonese (Solís): habitational name from Solís in Asturies or a similarly named place elsewhere. English: from a medieval personal name bestowed on a child born after the death of a sibling, from Middle English solace ‘comfort’, ‘consolation’. The word also came to have the sense ‘delight’, ‘amusement’, and in some cases the surname may have arisen from a nickname for a playful or entertaining person.

Spanish (of Basque origin): Castilianized form of the Basque personal name Otxoa, equivalent of Latin lupus ‘wolf’.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Santoña in Santander province, whose name derives from escala ‘ladder’ (Latin scala), referring to a terraced slope.

Spanish: habitational name from Luque in Córdoba.

Spanish: habitational name, from the name of a mountain and an ancient city in the province of Burgos, probably derived from Basque amai ‘end’ + the article suffix -a. Japanese: usually written with characters meaning ‘heavenly valley’. It is pronounced Amaya or Amagai in eastern Japan and Amatani in western Japan.

Spanish (Argüello): habitational name from any of various minor places called Arguello, from Old Spanish arboleo ‘well-wooded’.

Spanish: habitational name from a place called Salazar in Burgos, probably named with sala ‘hall’ + Basque za(h)ar ‘old’, and thus a Basque equivalent of Saavedra. Spanish: Castilianized variant of Basque Zaraitzu, a habitational name from a town so named in Navarre.

This is a Leonese name from Astorga. Found throughout the Peninsula and also Colombia.

Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, northern Italian, French, and English: from the personal name, a derivative of the Latin personal name Vitalis (see Vitale).

Spanish and Portuguese: from Spanish and Portuguese machado ‘hatchet’ (a derivative of Macho 2), probably a nickname, but possibly also a habitational name, as this word is also a common element of place names.

Galician and Portuguese: common topographic name for someone who lived by a forge or iron workings, from Latin ferraria ‘forge’, ‘iron working’.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: habitational name from a place called Iglesias (from the plural of iglesia ‘church’), in particular the one in Burgos province.

Basque: Castilianized form of Basque Gebara, a habitational name from a place in the Basque province of Araba. The origin and meaning of the place name are uncertain; it is recorded in the form Gebala by the geographer Ptolemy in the 2nd century ad. This is a rare name in Spain.

Spanish: variant of Esquibel.

Spanish: from the personal name Jaime, Spanish equivalent of James.

nickname for an old man or someone with prematurely white hair, from cano ‘white or gray haired’, ‘old’, ‘worthy’ (Latin canus). habitational name from a place in Spain called Caño or Cano in Portugal, both named with a derivative of Latin canna ‘reed’.

habitational name from Luján in Huesca province.

South American spelling of Spanish Espinosa; the spelling with -z- represents a voiced pronunciation heard in some Latin-American countries, whereas in Castilian Spanish it now has an unvoiced -s-.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the many places in Spain, especially Galicia, called Palacio (alongside the Galician form Pazo), or from El Palacio, Castilianized form of El Palaciu, a town in Asturies. All are named with palacio ‘palace’, ‘manor’, ‘great house’, Latin palatium, a word derived from the Palatium or mons Palatinus in Rome, site of the emperor Augustus’ golden house.

habitational name from any of the numerous places named Villanueva, from Spanish villa ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + nueva (feminine) ‘new’ (Latin nova). Castilianized spelling of Catalan and Galician Vilanova, a habitational name from a frequent place name, of the same derivation as 1 above.

habitational name from any of the places named Salvatierra (literally ‘save land’). This is a widespread place name, denoting a place of strategic importance. Castilianized form of Galician Salvaterra or Aragonese Salbatierra, habitational names from places in Galicia and Aragon.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: nickname for a belligerent person or for a soldier, from guerra ‘war’. In some cases the Italian name may represent a short form of various compound personal names containing this element, for example Vinciguèrra. The Iberian name may in some cases reflect a misinterpretation of the Basque base ezquerra, esquerra, from esker ‘left-handed’. Basque: Castilianized form of Basque Gerra, a topographic name for someone who lived in a break or depression in a range of hills, from Basque gerri ‘waist’.

Spanish (Bordón): from bordón ‘pilgrim’s staff’, hence a nickname for a pilgrim. Spanish (Bordón): habitational name from a place so named in Teruel province. French: variant of Bourdon.

Spanish: from a variant of salcedo ‘willow plantation’, as a topographic or habitational name (see Salcedo).

Italian: patronymic or plural form of Ferraro.

topographic name for someone who lived on a slope or river bank, or on the coast (ultimately from Latin costa ‘rib’, ‘side’, ‘flank’, also used in a transferred topographical sense), or a habitational name from any of numerous places named Costa or named with this word. of Greek origin (see Costas).

Spanish (Rolón): possibly from a derivative of rol ‘roll’, ‘scroll’, ‘reel’. This is a rare surname in Spain, being associated chiefly with Mexico and Puerto Rico.

Basque: habitational name from any of various places in Biscay and Araba named Zabala, from Basque zabal ‘large’, ‘broad’ + the definite article -a. In some cases the surname may have arisen as a nickname from the same word.

Spanish (Durán) and Catalan: from the personal name Durand (see Durant, Durante). English: variant of Durant. Polish: from a derivative of Dura. Czech: from a derivative of Dura.

Spanish and Aragonese: from the personal name Tello (see Tellez). Italian: from a short form of a personal name formed with this suffix, as for example Donatello, Moscatello, Otello.

Spanish (mainly Mexico): variant of Quiros.

Spanish and Portuguese: topographic name, a plural form of Monte. Dutch: patronymic from a short form of a Germanic compound personal name formed with -mund ‘protection’ as the final element. Compare Raymond.

Spanish and southern Italian: from the personal name Alfonso, the name of a number of Spanish and Portuguese kings. It derives from the Visigothic personal name Adelfonsus, composed of the elements hathu ‘war’ + funs ‘ready’.

Portuguese: habitational name from any of various places called Brito. The place name is probably related to the root britt-. Compare Breton.

Spanish (Marín), French, English, Slovenian, Croatian, and Romanian: from the Latin personal name Marinus, borne by several minor early saints. Originally this was a Roman family name derived from Marius (compare Marie), but was often taken to mean ‘of the sea’. Italian (Venetia): variant of Marino. Serbian, Croatian, and Slovenian: from the personal name Marija or its short form Mara (see Maria). Galician and Spanish: habitational name from a place called Marín, in particular the one in Pontevedra, Galicia. French: occupational name for a sailor, Old French marin (Late Latin marinus, a derivative of mare ‘sea’). Asturian-Leonese (Marín): occupational name for a sailor in Asturies.

Portuguese and Galician: habitational name from any of the numerous places in Portugal and Galicia called Moreira, from moreira ‘mulberry tree’.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Olmos, from the plural of olmo ‘elm’.

Spanish: habitational name from Montiel, a place in Ciudad Real province.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Olmedo in Burgos and Valladolid provinces, from olmedo ‘stand of elm trees’.

Bruno, from the latin "prunum"—prunes, or prune tree.This surname should not be associated with the Germanic "brun" - dark complexion - but with "brunna, prunja" - breast plate, cuirass.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places named with arroyo ‘watercourse’, ‘irrigation channel’ (a word of pre-Roman origin).

Spanish and Portuguese: habitational name from either of the places called Reinoso, in Burgos and Palencia, apparently from a derivative of reino ‘kingdom’.

Portuguese (and Galician): habitational name from any of various places called Araújo: in Portugal, in Coimbra, Elvas, Estremoz, Lisbon, Moncorvo, Monsão, Serpa, Setúbal, and Villa Verde; also in Ourense, Galicia.

Spanish: habitational name from Cisneros, a place in the province of Palencia, named with a derivative of Spanish cisne ‘swan’ (via Old French and Latin from Greek kyknos).

Spanish: habitational name from a place called Quevedo, such as Casa de Quevedo in Albacete province.

Spanish: occupational name for a beater or other assistant at a hunt, from an agent derivative of monte, which, as well as meaning ‘mountain’, ‘hill’, could be used in the transferred sense of a game forest on wooded upland. The occupational term was itself also used as a title for any of various palace functionaries, and some cases of the surname may derive from this.

Dweller in a damp place, or on land which is newly cultivated.Ancient Galician and Portuguese surname, and name of villages near Orense, Santander, and Oviedo. Means "lleno de barro," to fill a pit."Barro" could refer to a humid place or land that is plowed.

Spanish: habitational name from Moya, in Cuenca, or from places so named Valencia, Lugo, and the Canaries. Catalan (Moyà): variant spelling of the habitational name from Moià in Barcelona province, named in Late Latin as Modianus ‘(estate) of Modius’ (a personal name derived from Latin modus ‘measure’).

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish and Galician: from carballo ‘oak’, hence a topographic name for someone who lived by a conspicuous oak tree or in an oak wood, or a habitational name from any of several villages so named in Galicia. Castilianized form of Asturian-Leonese Carbachu, a habitational name from and old form of Asturian-Leonese carbayu ‘oak’, of pre-Latin origin.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: nickname for a dark-haired or dark-skinned man, from Old Spanish prieto ‘dark’, ‘black’. The adjective derives from the verb apretar ‘to squeeze or compress’, a metathesized form of apetrar, Late Latin appectorare ‘to hold close to the chest’ (from pectus, genitive pectoris, ‘chest’). The use as a color term seems to have derived originally from its application to rain clouds and fog.

Spanish: habitational name from a place called Alcaraz, in Albacete province, derived perhaps from the ancient Alcaratium Orcia, or possibly from Arabic al ‘the’ + karaz ‘cherry’.

from a personal name, byname, or nickname, dos Santos (from Spanish Todos los Santos ‘All Saints’, Portuguese Todos os santos), typically bestowed on a child born on All Saints’ Day. in many cases, a habitational name from any of the places named Santos, from the dedication of a local church or shrine to all the saints. This is a very common Portuguese surname.

Spanish: nickname from chamorro ‘shaven head’, used especially to denote a boy or Portuguese man.

Spanish and Catalan: variant (plural) of Casa. The Catalan form is a respelling (probably Castilianization) of Catalan Cases.

Castilianized form of Basque Karrantza, a habitational name from Karrantza in Biscay province, Basque Country.

Portuguese: habitational name from a place in the province of Tras-os-Montes named Chaves, from Latin (aquis) Flaviis, ‘(at the) waters of Flavius’. The place was the site of sulfurous springs with supposedly health-giving properties, around which a settlement was founded in the 1st century ad by the Emperor Vespasian. Portuguese and Galician: habitational name from any of numerous places called Chaves, generally from the plural of chave ‘key’, from Latin clavis. Variant of Irish and English Chivers. Compare Chavers.

Spanish: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements ric ‘power(ful)’ + helm ‘helmet’, ‘protection’.

Spanish (Arévalo): habitational name from places called Arévalo, in the provinces of Ávila and Soria, or from various places named with this word.

A Portuguese toponymic, from the village near Braga.

Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, and Galician: from parra ‘vine bower’, ‘trellis’, a topographic name or a habitational name from any of the places named with this word.

Spanish (Véliz): variant of Vélez (see Velez).

English: from Middle English, Old French faucon, falcun ‘falcon’, either a metonymic occupational name for a falconer, or a nickname for someone thought to resemble the falcon, which was regarded as a symbol of speed and courage in the Middle Ages. In a few cases, it may also have been a metonymic occupational name for a man who operated the piece of artillery named after the bird of prey. Compare Faulkner. In Louisiana, the name Falcón is borne by the descendants of Canary Islanders brought in to settle in 1779.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Móráin ‘descendant of Mórán’, a personal name meaning ‘great’, ‘large’; the stress is normally on the first syllable. English: variant of Morant, normally pronounced with the stress on the second syllable. Spanish (Morán): habitational name from places called Morán in Asturies, Galicia (Pontevedra) and Aragon (Zaragoza).

Spanish: occupational name for a stonemason, cantero.

habitational name from any of various places so called, from Spanish otero ‘height’, ‘hill’ (Late Latin altarium, a derivative of altus ‘high’). Castilianized form of the common Galician and Asturian-Leonese place names Outeiro and Uteru.

Portuguese and Galician: habitational name from any of the numerous places so named, from Portuguese and Galician rocha ‘rock’, ‘cliff’.

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname from Spanish and Portuguese lobo ‘wolf’ (Latin lupus). This name is also found in western India, where it was taken by Portuguese colonists.

Spanish: topographical name from cueva ‘cave’, plural cuevas, or a habitational name from any of numerous places named with this word, for example in the provinces of Burgos and Málaga.

Catalan, French, English, German (also Romann), Polish, Hungarian (Román), Romanian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian: from the Latin personal name Romanus, which originally meant ‘Roman’. This name was borne by several saints, including a 7th-century bishop of Rouen. English, French, and Catalan: regional or ethnic name for someone from Rome or from Italy in general, or a nickname for someone who had some connection with Rome, as for example having been there on a pilgrimage. Compare Romero.

Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Jewish (Sephardic and Ashkenazic): nickname from Portuguese, Spanish, Italian caro ‘dear’, ‘beloved’ (Latin carus). In medieval Italy this was also a personal name. Italian (Sicily; Carò): variant of Carrò (see Carro).

(French) Descendant of Geoffray or Godefroi (God's peace).

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): nickname from pinto ‘colorful’, ‘painted’. Spanish: habitational name from Pinto in Madrid. Catalan (Pintó): Catalan variant of Pintor ‘painter’. Portuguese: from a nickname from pinto ‘chick’. This name is also common in western India, where it was taken by Portuguese colonists. Italian: from pinto ‘mottled’, ‘dotted’ (Late Latin pinctus, for classical Latin pictus ‘painted’), hence a nickname for a person with a blotchy or pock-marked complexion or pepper-and-salt hair, or in some parts of the south at least from the same word in the sense ‘lively or restless person’.

Basque: habitational name from any of the places called Arrieta, for example in the provinces of Araba, Biscay, Gipuzkoa and Navarre, from Basque arri ‘stone’ + the suffix -eta ‘place or group of’.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Portillo, from the diminutive of puerto ‘mountain pass’, notably those in Valladolid, Soria, and Toledo.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Rivera, a variant of Ribera. Italian: northern variant of the southern (especially Sicily) topographic name Ribera. Catalan: in some cases, variant of Catalan Ribera.

Spanish (common in Guatemala and Argentina): unexplained.

Spanish: variant of Galician Quinteiro, a habitational name from Quintero in Ourense province, Galicia, so named from quinteiro ‘farmstead’.

Italian: from the personal name Russo, southern variant ofnRosso, a nickname for someone with red hair, a red beard, or anruddy complexion. EC, kh

Spanish: topographic name from carrasco, carrasca ‘holm oak’ (from Latin cerrus, from a pre-Roman Celtiberian word), or a habitational name from any of various places named with this word, as for example Carrasco in Salamanca province or Casas Carrasco in Jaén province, Spain.

Catalan: Castilianized form of Vives.

Basque: habitational name from any of several towns called Gamarra, in Araba, Basque Country.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish (Cortés), Catalan (Cortès), and Portuguese (Cortês): from cortés ‘courteous’, ‘polite’, a derivative of corte (see Corte), a nickname for a refined person, sometimes no doubt given ironically. Spanish and Portuguese (Cortes): habitational name from any of numerous places in Spain and Portugal named with cortes, plural of corte ‘court’.

Galician and Spanish: nickname, probably for a high-spirited person, from becerra ‘young cow’, ‘heifer’. It may also have been a metonymic occupational name for a cowherd.

Spanish, Galician, Portuguese, and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of the numerous places in Spain (especially in Galicia) and Portugal named or named with Prado, from prado ‘meadow’ (from Latin pratum).

Portuguese: variant spelling of Barbosa.

Italian and Spanish: nickname from Italian and medieval Spanish merlo ‘blackbird’ (Latin merula). In the Middle Ages this bird seems to have been regarded at times as foolish and gullible, and at other times as cunning and wily. In some cases the surname may have arisen as a metonymic occupational name for a bird catcher.

Spanish: from hidalgo ‘nobleman’ (attested in this form since the 12th century), a contraction of the phrase hijo de algo ‘son of something’. The expression hijo de (Latin filius ‘son’ + de ‘of’) is used to indicate the abundant possession of a quality, probably influenced by similar Arabic phrases with ibn; algo (Latin aliquid ‘something’) is used in an elliptical manner to refer to riches or importance. As in the case of other surnames denoting high rank, the name does not normally refer to the nobleman himself, but is usually an occupational name for his servant or a nickname for someone who gave himself airs and graces.

Spanish (Olguín): variant of Holguín (see Holguin).

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Asturian-Leonese and Spanish: habitational name from any of the places (mainly in Asturies) called Villa, from villa ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’, or from any of the numerous places named with this word as the first element. Italian: topographic name for someone who lived in a village as opposed to an isolated farmhouse, or in a town as opposed to the countryside, from Latin villa ‘country house’, ‘estate’, later used to denote of a group of houses forming a settlement and in some dialects to denote the most important area or center of a settlement, or a habitational name from any of various places named with this word.

Spanish (León): habitational name from León, a city in northwestern Spain, named with Latin legio, genitive legionis ‘legion’, a division of the Roman army. In Roman times the city was the garrison of the 7th Legion, known as the Legio Gemina. The city’s name became reduced from Legion(em) to Leon(em), and in this form developed an unetymological association with the word for ‘lion’, Spanish león. Spanish: from the personal name León, from Greek leon ‘lion’ (see Lyon 2). Leon is also found as a Greek family name. Spanish: nickname for a fierce or brave warrior, from león ‘lion’. French (Léon) and English: variant of Lyon.

From the latin "sarmentum" - vine shoots. The landmark of the area where the inhabitants were given this name. Place name in Argentina.Galician name descended from knight Salvador González, Count of Bureba.

This family had, for a very long time, houses in the town of Espinosa de los Monteros; in the province of Burgos, as well as in Salamanca, Talavera de la Reina (Toledo) and Jerez de la Frontera (Cadiz).

Spanish: habitational name from Puebla de Sanabria in Zamora province.

Spanish (Pavón): nickname for a proud, vain, or showy man, from pavón ‘peacock’. Italian: northern variant of Pavone.

Spanish and southern French (Occitan): from Spanish and Old French rey ‘king’ (from Latin rex, genitive regis), which could have been applied any of in numerous ways: it may have denoted someone in the service of a king; it may have been from the title of someone in a brotherhood; or a nickname for someone who behaved in a regal fashion or who had earned the title in some contest of skill or by presiding over festivities. English: variant spelling of Ray 1, cognate with 1. German: from a short form of a Germanic personal name formed with ragin ‘counsel’. German: nickname for a leader of dancing or singing, from Middle Low German rei(e) ‘(line) dance’, ‘(satirical) song’.

Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan (Móra): habitational name from any of the places named Mora, in some cases from mora ‘mulberry’ (Late Latin mora, originally the plural of classical Latin morum). Occitan and Catalan (Morà): from Morandus, an old personal name of uncertain derivation and meaning. Italian: topographic name from Old Italian mora ‘pile of stones’. Hungarian (Móra): from a pet form of the personal name Móricz, Hungarian form of Morris. Czech and Polish: from a short form of a personal name, e.g. Czech Mauric, Polish Maurycy, derived from Latin Mauritius (see Morris). Polish: possibly a nickname from mora ‘sickness’, ‘plague’. Czech: possibly a nickname from mora ‘vampire’.

Galician and possibly also Spanish: patronymic from the personal name Vasco, reduced form of Spanish Velásquez (see Velasquez).

Spanish (Cárdenas): habitational name from places in the provinces of Almería and Logroño named Cárdenas, from the feminine plural of cárdeno ‘blue’, ‘bluish purple’ (Late Latin cardinus, from carduus ‘thistle’). Presumably the noun tierras ‘lands’ is to be understood, and the reference is to land covered with bluish plants, such as thistles or vines.

Spanish: topographic name for someone who lived by a dogwood tree, Spanish cornejo (Latin corniculus), or a habitational name from any of the various minor places named Cornejo, for example in the provinces of Almería, Burgos, and Ciudad Real.

Spanish: habitational name from Alanís in Seville province.

Castilianized form of Basque and Catalan Araia, a habitational name from any of various places called Araia, for example in Araba, Basque Country, and Catelló de la Plana, Valencia. Spanish: habitational name from any of the places called Araya, as for example the one in Canary Islands. Japanese: meaning ‘wild valley’ or ‘new valley’; found in eastern Japan and pronounced Aratani in western Japan. Neither version is particularly common.

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places in Burgos, Lleón, and Santander named Vallejo, from a diminutive of valle ‘valley’.

Spanish (Enríquez): patronymic from Enrique.

Italian: from Bianco.

Ancient Galician and Portuguese surname, and name of villages near Orense, Santander, and Oviedo. Means "lleno de barro," to fill a pit.This word could have two possible meanings: the physical appearance of an individual's face or it could refer to a humid and uncomfortable place.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: nickname for a bald-headed man, from calvo ‘bald’ (Latin calvus).

Galician and Portuguese: habitational name from a place in Lugo province, Galicia. It is probably from a name recorded in Latin sources as Lemavos, apparently a derivative of the Celtic element lemos, limos ‘elm’.

Spanish (and Portuguese): from casco ‘helmet’, ‘shell’.

Spanish: habitational name from a place Cádiz named Trejo. Asturian-Leonese: Castilianized form of Asturian-Leonese Trexo, a habitational name from a place in Asturies.

Galician and Portuguese: habitational name from any of numerous places in Galicia and Portugal named Andrade, perhaps originally villa Andr(e)ati ‘estate of a man named Andreas’.

Spanish, Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, and southern Italian: habitational name from any of various places named or named with Palma, from Latin palma ‘palm’. Portuguese: habitational name for someone from Parma in Italy.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Badajoz province called Alvarado.

Spanish: habitational name from places in the provinces of Badajoz and Cadiz called Jerez. The former, now known in full as Jerez de los Caballeros, was the birthplace of the explorer Vasco Núñez (c.1475–1519); the latter, Jerez de la Frontera, was an important center for the manufacture of sherry (named in English from the place) and brandy.

BRANDANE: S. Brandan appears to have been the special patron of Bute, for the Butemen were of old called the 'Brandans.' Wyntoun (Chronicle, V, p. 317, S.T.S. ed.) mentions 'the Brandanys of But' as followers of Sir John Stewart of Bute.

Spanish: unexplained. This is a frequent name in Spain.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Llanos or Los Llan, from the plural of llano ‘plain’.

Spanish: from pizarra ‘slate’, hence a topographic name for someone who lived near a slate quarry or occupational name for someone who worked in one.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the various minor places, for example in the provinces of Burgos, Guadalajara, and Valladolid, named from Spanish padilla ‘frying pan’, ‘breadpan’ (Latin patella, a diminutive of patina ‘shallow dish’), a word which was commonly used in the topographical sense of a gentle depression.

English, Spanish, and Portuguese: nickname for a loyal or trustworthy person, from Old French leial, Spanish and Portuguese leal ‘loyal’, ‘faithful (to obligations)’, Latin legalis, from lex, ‘law’, ‘obligation’ (genitive legis).

Comes from 'Sepultador de Vidas': 'one that buries life', meaning that its origins are in the gravedigger profession.

Italian (Piedmont and Liguria): variant of Ferraro. Catalan (Ferreró): from a diminutive of Ferrer.

Spanish: habitational name from Rueda in Valladolid, Rueda denJalón in Zamora, Rueda de la Sierra in Guadalajara, or any of thenplaces called La Rueda, from Castilian rueda ‘wheel’, Latinnrota. Compare Catalan Roda. DK, kh

Portuguese, Galician, and Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places with this name, denoting a place with an abundance of cardoons.

Spanish: habitational name from a place named Lara de los Infantes in Burgos province.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Logroño province named Alfaro, apparently from Arabic al ‘the’ + Old Spanish faro ‘beacon’, ‘lighthouse’.

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname from Spanish, Portuguese garrido ‘elegant’, ‘handsome’, ‘comely’.

Spanish and Catalan: habitational name from any of various places called Segura, named with segura ‘safe’, ‘secure’.

Galician and Spanish: habitational name from Lugo, a city in Galicia. This was a Roman settlement under the name of Lucus Augusti ‘grove or wood of Augustus’, but that may have been no more than an adaptation of an earlier name derived from that of the Celtic god Lugos.

Spanish: from a characteristic (but rare) hybridization, in this case of Semitic (i)ben ‘son’ + Egas, a personal name of Visigothic origin. More widespread is the Portuguese equivalent, Viegas.

Spanish and Portuguese: topographic name from chaparro ‘oak bushes’ (used as firewood), from Basque txaparro, or alternatively a nickname from the same word in the sense ‘plump’, ‘chubby’.

Spanish and Italian: from the personal name Lorenzo, derived from the Latin personal name Laurentius (see Lawrence).

Catalan: topographic name for someone who lived in a plank-built cottage, from Catalan borda ‘board’. Hungarian: see Bordas.

Spanish (Cuéllar): habitational name from a place called Cuéllar in Segovia province, or from minor places so named in the provinces of Soria and Salamanca.

Italian: from the personal name Colombo, from Latin Colombus, Colomba meaning ‘dove’, a personal name favored by early Christians because the dove was considered to be the symbol of the Holy Spirit. In some cases the name may have arisen as a nickname for a gentle, mild-mannered person, or as a metonymic occupational name for a keeper of doves (Latin columbus ‘dove’).

German (Müller) and Jewish (Ashkenazic): see Mueller. Dutch: variant of Mulder.

Spanish: topographic or habitational name from a place named with ahumar ‘to smoke’, possibly denoting a place where ham and other meats were smoked or alternatively a place that had been cleared for settlement by burning. Places named with this word are found in Jaén and Cádiz.

Aymara (or possibly also Quechua): Castilianized variant of Qhispi, most probably a nickname from Aymara qhispi ‘glass’, ‘precious stone’ (or from Quechua qhispi umiña ‘diamond’). This name is mainly found in Bolivia and Peru.

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places named Villar, or in some cases a Castilianized spelling of the Catalan and Galician cognates Vilar. English: variant of Villers, cognate with 3. Southern French: topographic name from Late Latin villare ‘outlying farm’, ‘dependent settlement’, or a habitational name from any of various places named with this word.

Spanish: habitational name from Cepeda in Salamanca province or Cepeda la Mora in Ávila province, named from cepeda, a collective of cepa ‘tree stump’, ‘stock’ (from Latin cippus ‘pillar’).

Spanish: from a pet form of the nickname Gordo, from Spanish gordo ‘fat’ (Late Latin gurdus, of uncertain origin).

Portuguese: religious byname adopted in honor of St. Catherine of Siena (Portuguese Sena). This saint was born in 1347 at Siena in Tuscany, the daughter of a wool-dyer with the surname Benincasa, and combined her work among the poor of the city with an influential role in ecclesiastical politics.

Castilianized form of Asturian-Leonese Llames, Llamas or L.lamas, habitational names from any of the numerous places named Llames, Llamas, or L.lamas, in Asturies.

Spanish: variant of Portuguese Freitas.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Salto, from salto ‘sloping’. Catalan (Saltó): variant of either Saltor or Sautó, both of them towns in northern Catalonia, in El Ripollès and El Conflent districts.

Spanish: habitational name from places called Carmona, in the provinces of Santander and (more famously) Seville. The place name is of pre-Roman origin and uncertain meaning.

French, Occitan, Catalan, and English: from the medieval personal name Morel, a diminutive vernacular form of Latin Maurus (see Moore 3), with the hypocoristic suffix -el. Compare Morrell. German: from the personal name and saint’s name Maurelius.

Galician: habitational name from Troncoso in Ourense province, from a derivative of tronco ‘tree trunk’, ‘stump’.

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from Mena, in Castile and León provinces. Greek (Menas): see Minas.

Spanish (Obregón): habitational name from Obregón in Santander province.

Spanish (Vélez): patronymic from the personal name Vela. Spanish (Vélez): habitational name from any of various places in Andalusia called Vélez. Portuguese (Velez, Velêz): unexplained. It may be a habitational name from Vellés in Salamanca.

Spanish: from centeno ‘rye’ (Late Latin centenum, a derivative of centum ‘hundred’, so called as the plant was supposed to be capable of producing a hundred grains on each stalk). The a surname may have arisen as a metonymic occupational name for someone who grew or sold rye, or a topographic name for someone who lived by a field given over to the cultivation of this crop.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places called Pedraza, especially those in the provinces of Palencia, Salamanca, and Segovia.

French (Béron): from a pet form of the Germanic personal name Bero, from ber ‘bear’. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): variant of Baron 6.

Catalan (Garró): from garró ‘calf’, presumably applied as a nickname. Portuguese: nickname from garro ‘leper’.

Spanish (Díez): variant of Díaz (see Diaz, Diego). German: variant spelling of Dietz.

Spanish: nickname for an elegant or haughty person, from lozano ‘splendid’, later ‘good-looking’.

Irish and English: variant of Coleman 1–4. Americanized spelling of German Kohlmann or Kollmann.

Spanish (Aragón) and French: regional name from Aragon, an independent kingdom from 1035 to 1479, which took its name from the river Aragón that arises in its northwestern corner. The river name is of obscure origin; it may be related to Basque (h)ara(n) ‘valley’. In Basque, Aragon is called Aragoa or Aragoi, which may mean ‘high valley’. See also Dragon, Deragon.

Spanish: habitational name from Cuenca city in Castile, named from cuenca ‘basin’, ‘hollow’ (Latin concha ‘shell’, ‘mussel’).

Spanish: metonymic occupational name for someone who had a mace as a symbol of office or who carried one in ceremonial possessions, from Spanish maza ‘mace’ (Late Latin mattea, probably of Germanic origin). In some cases it may have been used as a metonymic occupational name for a soldier who used a mace in its original function as a weapon. Polish: nickname derived from mazac ‘to smear’, ‘sully’, ‘rub out’. The exact meaning of the nickname is unclear. Compare Maziarz.

The last name 'Condori' begins from the time of the conquest by the Spaniards in America. Started from the arrival of a Spanish nobleman who travelled to South America and settled in Bolivia, where he married an Inca princess and started a family.

Italian: from the personal name Giordano, Italian equivalent of Jordan.

Spanish and Portuguese: from vaca ‘cow’ (Latin vacca), probably applied as a metonymic occupational name for a cowherd or as a nickname. Czech: pet form of the personal name Václav (see Vacek).

Italian, Spanish, and Catalan: topographic name for someone who lived near a spring, from Romance descendants of Late Latin fontana, a derivative of classical Latin fons, or in Italy possibly a habitational name from any of the numerous minor places named with this word. The surname is also established in Portugal, imported form Italy.

Spanish and Aragonese (of Basque origin): habitational name from any of the places in La Rioja, Aragon, and Basque Country named Navarrete, from Basque (spoken in all those areas in pre-Roman times) Nafarrete ‘plateau between two small valleys’, a derivative of naba (see Nava, Navarra).

Spanish: habitational name from the city of Zamora in northwestern Spain, capital of the province which bears its name.

Basque: Castilianized variant of habitational name from a place in Biscay province named Urkiza, from Basque urki ‘birch tree’ + the collective suffix -tza.

Spanish: probably a habitational name from a place named Tejada, most likely the one in Burgos province but possibly the one in Huelva province, so named from a derivative of teja ‘(roof) tile’.

Spanish (Beltrán), Catalan, and southern French: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements berht ‘bright’, ‘famous’ + hrabn ‘raven’. See also Bertram.

Basque: Castilianized form of Basque Gatika, a habitational name from a place called Gatika in Biscay, Basque Country.

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname for someone with tawny hair, from pardo ‘dusky’, ‘brown’, ‘dark gray’, (from Latin pardus ‘leopard’). Italian: from a personal name, a variant of the Lombardic personal name Bardo (see Bardo). Italian and Greek: from the Greek personal name Pardos ‘leopard’, ‘cheetah’.

Portuguese and Spanish: from a personal name, bestowed especially on children born on or around the Feast of the Epiphany (6 January), Spanish Aparición, which celebrates the appearance of Christ to the Magi. The Spanish vocabulary word aparición means ‘appearance’ or ‘manifestation’. In Portugal and Spain, however, this is found as a forenames only, not a surname.

Italian: from the personal name Marino, from Latin Marinus (see Marin 1). Italian: habitational name from any of various places named Marino. Spanish and Galician (Mariño): occupational name for a sailor, marino (from Latin marinus ‘of the sea’).

Spanish and Portuguese (Paniágua): status name for a servant who worked for his board (pan ‘bread’ and agua ‘water’) and lodging.

Spanish and Portuguese: from machucar, machacar ‘to squash’, ‘to crush’, probably applied as a nickname for someone who was obstinate.

Spanish and Portuguese: from lobo ‘wolf’, plural lobos. This is a frequent element in minor place names.

Galician and Spanish: possibly a variant spelling of Vieira. In Spain the surname is found mainly in the island of Tenerife.

Spanish and Portuguese: from the personal name Vicente, Spanish and Portuguese equivalent of Vincent.

Spanish, Portuguese, and northern Italian: nickname for a man with curly hair, from Latin crispus ‘curly-haired’.

Galician: variant of Figueiredo.

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of the numerous places named Sierra or La Sierra, from sierra ‘ridge or chain of hills’ (from Latin serra ‘saw’).

nickname for someone with red hair, from rojo ‘red’ (Latin rubeus). habitational name from either of two places in Galicia called Rojo, in A Coruña and Lugo provinces.

Spanish: from the personal name Enrique, Spanish form of Henry.

Spanish: of uncertain derivation; possibly from lima ‘file’. Portuguese: topographic name for someone living on the banks of the river of this name (of pre-Roman origin, probably akin to a Celtic element lemos, limos ‘elm’).

German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name from Middle High German smit, German Schmied ‘blacksmith’. The German surname is found in many other parts of Europe, from Slovenia to Sweden.

Spanish: unexplained.

Spanish and Portuguese: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Santana, an assimilated form of Santa Ana.

nickname from Spanish zurita ‘dove’. habitational name from either of two places, in Uesca and Santander, named Zurita, possibly from Basque zuri ‘white’.

Spanish (Tórrez): variant of Torres.

Basque: variant of Gernika, a habitational name from Guernica in Biscay, Basque Country.

Basque: habitational name from any of three places called Lizarraga, in Navarra and Alava and Guipuzcoa provinces, which are named from Basque lizarr (or le(i)zar) ‘ash tree’ + the locative suffix -aga.

Spanish (Velásquez): patronymic from the personal name Velasco.

Galician and Spanish: habitational name from any of the places in Galicia named Pino, from pino ‘pine’, or topographic name for somebody who lived by a remarkable pine tree. Italian: habitational name from Pino d’Asti in Asti province, Pino Torinese in Torino, or Pino Solitario in Taranto, all named with pino ‘pine’. Italian: from the personal name Pino, a short form Giuseppino (from Giuseppe), Filippino (from Filippo), Jacopino (from Jacopo), or some other pet name formed with this suffix.

Spanish or Portuguese: unexplained. Compare Villarruel.

probably from farfán, a term denoting one of a group of Spaniards who went to Morocco in the 8th century; there they retained their Christian faith and in 1390 their descendants returned to Spain. in some cases, a habitational name from Farfán in Granada.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: variant (singular) of Contreras, used perhaps in a topographic sense or as a nickname in the sense ‘contrary’.

Spanish (Benavídez): variant of Benavides.

Spanish: habitational name from Noguera, a town in Teruel, probably from Catalan noguera ‘walnut tree’ (Latin nucarius). Catalan: topographic name for someone who lived by any of the rivers called Noguera, in northern Catalonia.

Catalan: from the personal name Bernal, a variant of Spanish Bernaldo (see Bernard).

Spanish form (Echeverría) of Basque Etxeberria (see Echevarria).

Spanish: from cordero ‘young lamb’ (Latin cordarius, a derivative of cordus ‘young’, ‘new’), hence a metonymic occupational name for a shepherd, or alternatively a nickname meaning ‘lamb’.

Spanish: from allende ‘on the other side’, hence a topographic name for someone living on the far side of some natural landmark, such as a mountain.

Greek, Spanish (Elías), Catalan, Portuguese, English, Welsh, French (Élias), German, Dutch, Hungarian (Éliás), Czech (Eliáš), and Jewish: from a medieval personal name, the New Testament Greek form of Hebrew Eliyahu ‘Jehovah is God’ (Anglicized as Elijah in the Old Testament of the King James Bible). This name was borne by a Biblical prophet, but its popularity among Christians in the Middle Ages was a result of its adoption by various early saints, including a 7th-century bishop of Syracuse and a 9th-century Spanish martyr.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places in southern Spain (Alacant, Ciudad Real, Jaen, Badajoz, and Cadiz) named Perea.

Spanish (Antúnez): patronymic from a dialect form of the personal name Antonio.

Spanish (of Basque origin): habitational name from Orozco in Bilbao province.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Soria province.

Galician: habitational name from a place called Candia, in Lugo province, Galicia. Italian: see De Candia.

S AN EZ Origen Y Significado El apellido Sáez se ha incluido en el grupo de los apellidos patronímicos, es decir, de aquellos que derivan del nombre propio de la persona que en un momento histórico determinado adoptan el nombre como apellido.

Spanish (Narváez): habitational name from a place so called near Almagro, in Ciudad Real province.

Spanish and Portuguese: from the plural of rosa ‘rose’. Catalan: variant of Roses, habitational name from Roses, a town in L’Alt Empordà, Catalonia (earlier Rodas). Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Las Rosas.

Spanish and Italian: habitational name from any of the many places named with valle ‘valley’, or topographic name for someone who lived in a valley (Latin vallis). Norwegian: habitational name from any of several farmsteads so named, from Old Norse vollr ‘field’, ‘meadow’.

Asturian-Leonese: habitational name from Noriega in Asturies.

Spanish: nickname from rubio ‘red’ (Latin rubeus), probably denoting someone with red hair or a red beard. Catalan (Rubió): habitational name from any of the places named Rubió in Catalonia.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

German: perhaps a variant of Leies, a variant of Elias. German (Rhenish): patronymic from Ley. Scottish and English: unexplained. Possibly a variant of Lee.

Spanish: variant of Villalba.

Spanish: variant spelling of Reina.

Spanish or Portuguese: unexplained. Compare Villarroel.

Spanish: ethnic name for someone from Castile. Italian: status names from castellano (Latin castellanus), denoting the governor or constable of a castle, the lord of the manor, or the warder of a prison.

Spanish: habitational name from any of several places named Olivares, from the plural of Spanish olivar ‘olive grove’. Compare Oliveira. The Spanish surname spread into Italy, becoming widespread in Milan and the Naples region.

Italian and Catalan: from rosa ‘rose’ (Latin rosa), applied in part as a topographic name for someone who lived where wild roses grew, in part as a habitational name for someone who lived at a house distinguished by the sign of a rose, and in part as a nickname for someone with a pink, rosy complexion. Portuguese and Spanish: in most cases a short form of a name such as (de la) Rosa (Spanish) or (da) Rosa (Portuguese), or occasionally from the female personal name Rosa. Polish and Czech: from the vocabulary word rosa ‘dew’, ‘juice’, ‘sap’, applied as a nickname.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: topographic name for someone living by a main road, carrera ‘thoroughfare’, originally a road passable by vehicles as well as pedestrians (Late Latin carraria (via), a derivative of carrum ‘cart’), or a habitational name from any of various places named with this word. Southern Italian: habitational name from a place named Carrera, cognate with 1.

Spanish (also de la Loza): habitational name from any of several places named Loza (in Galicia, Asturias, and the Basque Country), probably named with loza ‘clay, earthenware’. in some cases Castilianized form of Asturian-Leonese Lloza, a habitational name from a town called Lloza in Asturies.

Spanish: perhaps from costilla ‘rib’, but more likely from a derivative of Costa.

Galician and Portuguese: nickname for a witty person, from salgado ‘salty’, figuratively ‘witty’, ‘piquant’ (from Late Latin salicatus, past participle of salicare ‘to give salt to’).

Basque: habitational name from any of the places named Arriola, from Basque arri ‘stone(s)’ + -ola ‘place of’, for example in the provinces of Gipuzkoa and Araba.

Spanish: habitational name from places in Zamora, Cáceres, and Vallodolid provinces. According to Asín Palacios, these names are derived from Arabic al-ma?hrath ‘the cultivated or arable land’; another possible origin would be al-ma?hras ‘the guarded or fortified place’, ‘the sanctuary’.

Jewish, German, Dutch, Danish, French, Spanish (Salomón), and Polish: the usual spelling in these languages of Solomon and a variant in others.

Spanish: habitational name for someone from a place in Andalusia called Camargo.

Catalan (Guàrdia), Spanish, and Italian: from Catalan guàrdia, Spanish and Italian guardia ‘guard’, ‘watch’, a topographic name for someone who lived by a watch place, an occupational name for a member of the town guard, or a habitational name from any of the numerous places named (La) Guardia.

Italian: nickname for a large or corpulent man, from Italian grosso ‘big’, ‘large’ (Late Latin grossus).

Taboa, in the Galician language, means 'table' (of wood). Thus, Taboada means 'long table' (of wood).

Portuguese and Spanish: habitational name from any of a number of places so named in Portugal or from Almeida in Zamora province, Spain, all named from Arabic as al-medina ‘the city’. This name is also found in western India, where it was taken by Portuguese colonists.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Italian: from the personal name Martino (see Martin).

Spanish (Céspedes): from the plural of cesped ‘peat’, ‘turf’ (Latin caespes, genitive caespitis), applied as a habitational name from a place named Céspedes (for example in Burgos province) or named with this word, or a topographic name for someone who lived by an area of peat, or possibly as a metonymic occupational name for someone who cut and sold turf.

Portuguese: habitational name from any of numerous places named with Portuguese merlo ‘blackbird’ (Latin merulus).

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Castile named Andino.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: habitational name from any of three places called Avellaneda (in Ávila, Toledo, and Biscay), from avellana ‘hazel’ + -eda ‘agglomeration’, ‘mass’.

Basque: topographic name for someone who lived between two or more settlements, from Basque iri ‘settlement’ , ‘village’ + arte ‘between’.

Basque: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Mendieta, from mendi ‘mountain’ + the plural suffix -eta.

Spanish and Portuguese: from the personal name Miguel, equivalent to Michael.

Spanish: habitational name from Roa in Burgos province.

From the Hebrew personal name Avraham, borne by a Biblical patriarch revered by Jews as the founding father of the Jewish people (Genesis 11–25), and by Muslims as founder of all the Semitic peoples, both Hebrew and Arab (compare Ibrahim). The name is explained in Genesis 17:5 as being derived from Hebrew av hamon goyim ‘father of a multitude of nations’. It was widely used as a personal name among Christians as well as Jews in the Middle Ages in diverse cultures from northern Europe to southern India. It is also found as a given name among Christians in India, and in the U.S. has come to be used as a family name among families from Kerala. Irish: English name adopted as an equivalent of Gaelic Mac an Bhreitheamhan ‘son of the judge’. See McBroom.

Spanish, Galician, and Portuguese: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Lagos, especially in Galicia. Greek: nickname for a timid person or a fast runner, from Greek lagos ‘hare’, or a reduced form of a patronymic based on such a nickname, such as Lagoudakis.

Spanish (Menéndez): patronymic from the medieval personal name Mendendo, a hypercorrected form of the Visigothic personal name Hermenegild, composed of the elements ermen, irmen ‘whole’, ‘entire’ + gild ‘tribute’. This personal name was borne by a 6th-century member of the Visigothic royal house, who was converted from Arianism to the Catholic faith and became an enormously popular saint, as a result of which the personal name was very common in Spain in the Middle Ages.

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places named Salcedo, so named from a collective form of salce ‘willow tree’. Compare Salce. Spanish: Castilianized variant of Basque Saratsu, a habitational name from a town so named, in Araba, Basque Country.

Catalan: occupational name for a blacksmith or a worker in iron, from Latin ferrarius. This is the commonest Catalan surname. English: variant of Farrar.

Catalan: topographic name for somebody who lived in a vila, which in Catalonia denoted a small town or village with certain privileges not common for villages, or habitational name from any of the places called La Vila or Vila. This name is one of the most common names in Catalonia. Catalan: habitational name from (Vilá): variant of Vilar. in some cases possibly also Galician and Portuguese: habitational name from any of the numerous places in Galicia named Vila, from vila ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’.

Italian, Portuguese, and Catalan: topographic name from Italian, Portuguese, Catalan serra ‘ridge or chain of hills’ (Latin serra ‘saw’). Italian: habitational name from any of various places named with serra ‘ridge’ (see 1 above), as for example Serra d’Aniello and Serra Pedace (Cosenza), Serra San Bruno (Vibo Valentia), Serracapriola (Foggia). Catalan: habitational name from any of various places, in Valencia and Catalonia, named Serra or with Serra, as for example Serra d’Almos or Serra d’en Galceran. Catalan (Serrà): topographic name for somebody who lived by a sierra, from Catalan serrà, an adjective derived from serra ‘mountain range’.

Portuguese: unexplained. This very common Portuguese surname seems to have originated in Andalusia, Spain.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Palencia province called Astudillo.

Italian: patronymic or plural form of Gatto.

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places called Linares, as for example in the provinces of Jaén, Seville, Salamanca, Cantabria, Burgos, and Soria, from the plural of linar ‘flax field’ (Latin linare, a derivative of linum ‘flax’). Asturian-Leonese and Aragonese: Castilianized form of Asturian-Leonese Llinares (also L.linares), or Aragonese Linars, habitational names from the towns in Aragon named with the word linars ‘flax fields’. Spanish (Liñares): occupational name for a linen merchant, Latin linarius.

Spanish and Catalan: habitational name from any of the numerous places in Spain and Portugal named Estrada, from estrada ‘road’, Latin stata (via) (from sternere ‘to strew or cover’), a term denoting a paved way.

Basque: variant spelling of Zelaia, a habitational name in Biscay province, Basque Country, from Basque zelai ‘field’, ‘meadow’ + the definite article -a.

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places called Plaza, from plaza ‘town square’.

Galician: habitational name from Riva de Neira, in Lugo province.

Italian (mainly central Liguria and Genoa): habitational name from Parodi Ligure in Alessandria region. There are early forms of the place name and surname spelt with -l- instead of -r- (e.g. Castrum Palodium, 12th century), a characteristic of Ligurian dialect. This name is now found in Mexico and South America.

Spanish (Chacón): nickname from chacón ‘gecko’.

Italian: surname commonly denoting a foundling, meaning literally ‘exposed’ (Latin expositus, past participle of exponere ‘to place outside’). At the present day this is the commonest surname in Naples and fourth in Italy as a whole.

Portuguese (Osório) and Spanish: from a medieval personal name Osorius, of uncertain origin. It is perhaps a metathesized form of Latin Orosius (Greek Orosios, a derivative of oros ‘mountain’), the name borne by a 4th-century Iberian theologian and historian, who was famous in Spain throughout the Middle Ages.

Spanish: habitational name from Hoyos in Cáceres province or one of the three places so named in Ávila province, from hoyo ‘pit’, ‘hole’, probably from Latin fovea.

Galician and Portuguese: habitational name from a common place name, derived from Latin aquilare ‘haunt of eagles’. Compare Spanish Aguilar.

Spanish and Portuguese: from cerda ‘bristle’, ‘hair’ (Late Latin cirra), apparently a nickname for someone with a prominent tuft of hair. One of the sons of King Alfonso X (1221–84) was known as Fernando de la Cerda. Catalan (Cerdà): regional name, cerdà, for someone from La Cerdanya, a Catalan district in the Pyrenees which is currently situated partly in Spain and partly in France.

Spanish: from the personal name Pascual, Latin Paschalis, from pascha ‘Easter’. Compare Italian Pasquale.

Spanish: from concha ‘shell’ (Latin concha), applied as a topographic name for someone who lived in or near a hollow or depression in the land, or a habitational name from any of the places named with this word, notably the one in Guadalajara.

Spanish (D’Ávila): habitational name for someone from Ávila (see Avila). Galician and Portuguese (da Vila): topographic name for someone ‘from the village (vila)’.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Italian: ethnic name for a Greek, from Italian Greco (Latin Graecus). In some cases it may have been applied as a nickname for a crafty or guileful person, for these were qualities traditionally attributed to the Greeks.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the various places called Lastra in Lugo (Galicia) or Oviedo (Asturias), or La Lastra (numerous places in northern Spain), named with lastra ‘flat slab of rock’.

Spanish: occupational name for a blacksmith, from an agent derivative of hierro ‘iron’ (Latin ferrum).

English: from the Middle English personal name Ale, a short form of any of the various personal names beginning with Al-. Dutch: unexplained. Estonian: unexplained. Italian (Alé): unexplained.

Portuguese (Espínola): variant of Espindola.

Masculine adjective referring to someone from Béjar, a city in the Salamanca province of western Spain.Of Portuguese origin but established in Estremadura in 13th century.

habitational name from El Soler, a town in El Rosselló district, northern Catalonia, or form any other place named El Soler or with Soler, from soler ‘ground’, ‘floor’ (Late Latin solarium, a derivative of solum ‘bottom’, ‘ground’). occupational name from Catalan soler, the person who makes or sells soles (of canvas sandals or shoes). This is a very common Catalan name.

Spanish: possibly from the Occitan personal name Aimeric (in southern France), composed of the Germanic elements haim ‘homeland’, ‘village’ + ric ‘power’.

Spanish or Basque: variant of Loyola.

Spanish and Portuguese: from a medieval personal name, Amado, Latin Amatus ‘beloved (i.e. by God)’. Compare Italian Amato. Jewish (Sephardic): adoption of the Spanish family name.

Spanish, Asturian-Leonese, and Galician: habitational name from any of the numerous places so named, from busto ‘meadow’, ‘willow’. In Asturian-Leonese, this name is a Castilianized form of Asturian-Leonese Bustu, of the same origin. Busto (and its equivalent Bustu) is one of the commonest place names of northwestern Iberia.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places (in Cáceres, Gran Canaria, and Toledo) named Tejeda, from a collective form of tejo ‘yew tree’ (Latin taxus).

Spanish (Zacarías) and Jewish: see Zacharias.

Italian (Liguria): variant of Rizzo, itself a variant of Riccio.

Ancient surname found in Vizcaya. Derived from latin "recapitare" meaning a relapse or recapture according to some researchers. To others, derives from Basque "erreka" equivalent to Spanish word "arroyo," plus "aldo" - a region, side, or margin marked by gully or small stream, or boundary so marked.

Spanish and Portuguese: habitational name from any of several places named for a spring that dried up during the summer months, from fonte seca ‘dry well’.

habitational name from Salguero in Burgos province, or a Castilianized form of the Galician habitational name Salgueiro, from any of numerous places so named from salguero meaning either ‘willow tree’ or ‘place in which animals are given salt’ (from salgar ‘to salt’). possibly from a homonymous archaic term denoting a spot where salt was given to cattle (Late Latin salicarium, a derivative of salicare ‘to give salt to’, from sal ‘salt’).

Spanish (Seville and Córdoba) and Galician: from corzo ‘roe deer’, probably applied as a nickname for someone who was timid or fleet of foot, or alternatively as a habitational name from places named with this word in A Coruña (Galicia) and Seville.

English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish (Simón), Czech and Slovak (Šimon), Slovenian, Hungarian, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the personal name, Hebrew Shim‘on, which is probably derived from the verb sham‘a ‘to hearken’. In the Vulgate and in many vernacular versions of the Old Testament, this is usually rendered Simeon. In the Greek New Testament, however, the name occurs as Simon, as a result of assimilation to the pre-existing Greek byname Simon (from simos ‘snub-nosed’). Both Simon and Simeon were in use as personal names in western Europe from the Middle Ages onward. In Christendom the former was always more popular, at least in part because of its associations with the apostle Simon Peter, the brother of Andrew. In Britain there was also confusion from an early date with Anglo-Scandinavian forms of Sigmund (see Siegmund), a name whose popularity was reinforced at the Conquest by the Norman form Simund.

Italian: patronymic or plural form of Conte.

Spanish (Alanís) and Portuguese: variant of Alaniz. Greek: from alani ‘open space’, ‘square’ (Turkish alan), a nickname for an idler, someone whose time was spent loafing around in the square of a town or village.

Spanish: topographic name for someone living by a crossroads, from the plural of carrera ‘thoroughfare’ (see Carrera).

Catalan: variant of Rodes 2. Galician and Portuguese: habitational name from any of three places in Galicia (in Lugo, Ourense, and Pontevedra), named Rodas, from the plural of roda ‘wheel’. metonymic occupational name for a wheelwright, from roda ‘wheel’, cognate with 1.

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname from the title of rank conde ‘count’, a derivative of Latin comes, comitis ‘companion’. English: unexplained.

Italian: from the personal name Rosso, a nickname for someone with red hair, a red beard, or a ruddy complexion, from rosso ‘red’. Greek (Rossos): ethnic name from Rossos ‘Russian’.

Spanish: habitational name from the village of Magaláns (Castilian Magalanes) in Pontevedra province.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Jewish (Sephardic): metonymic occupational name for someone who produced or worked iron (Latin ferrum). Italian: from a medieval personal name, preserved in the modern pet form Ferrucio.

Adjective from the latin "bellus" - beautiful.Found in Galicia, Orense, and Leon. Names of villages near Oviedo and Teruel. Derived from latin "bellus" - beautiful, perfect.Galician name found throughout the Peninsula.

Basque: topographic name composed of the elements gain ‘peak’, ‘summit’ + boa ‘rounded’.

Galician, Asturian-Leonese, and Portuguese: habitational name from any of numerous places called Parada, predominantly in Galicia, but also in Asturies, Lleón, and northern Portugal.

Castilian name of French origin from Medina de Rioseco.

Found in Galicia and Portugal. Village name Barreiros near Mondonedo derived from same source. Galician variation of surname Barbara, or Barber.This is a variation of the word "barrero" which refers to the trade of potter.See Barrera.

Variant of Portuguese Esteves.

Spanish: from mancilla ‘mole’, ‘birthmark’ or ‘blot’, ‘stain’ (Latin manucella), hence a nickname for someone with a blemish on their skin or their character. Asturian-Leonese: habitational name from Mancilla, a village in Lleón province, northern Spain.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in the province of Seville, named from Arabic Oxuna, perhaps from Late Latin Ursina (villa) ‘estate of Ursus’, a byname meaning ‘bear’.

Spanish: variant spelling of Cirino.

Spanish: nickname for a person with some peculiarity of the cheek or jaw, Spanish carrillo. The word is attested since the 13th century, but its origin is uncertain. It appears to be a diminutive of carro ‘cart’, ‘wagon’, and it has been suggested that the reference is to the movements of the jaw in chewing. The surname may also have denoted originally a bold or shameless person; for the semantic development compare Cheek.

Spanish (mainly southern; Villagrán): habitational name, apparently from a lost place called Villa Grande, meaning ‘large farmstead or settlement’.

Spanish: from the plural of vara ‘rod’, ‘stick’ (see Varas), of uncertain application, possibly topographic.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: habitational name from a place so called in Guadalajara province.

German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a tailor, literally ‘cutter’, from Middle High German snider, German Schneider, Yiddish shnayder. The same term was sometimes used to denote a woodcutter. This name is widespread throughout central and eastern Europe.

Spanish and Catalan: habitational name from any of the places in the provinces of Barcelona, Cuenca, and Burgos named Pineda, from Spanish and Catalan pineda ‘pine forest’. in some instances possibly Asturian-Leonese Piñeda, from a town called Piñeda in Asturies.

Basque: variant spelling of Ibarra.

Spanish (Ábalos): variant of Avalos.

The rivers Quindío and Barragán are born in the foothills of the Quindío Volcano in Salento (at more than 4,000 meters above sea level) and in Genoa (at 3,000m.s.n.m) respectively. Once formed, at the site called Maravelez, La Vieja runs as a boundary through the departments of Quindio, Valle del Cauca and Risaralda.

Spanish (Macías) and Portuguese: from a variant of the personal name Matías (see Matthew).

Spanish (Bermúdez): patronymic from Bermudo, a Germanic (Visigothic) personal name of uncertain etymology.

Italian: variant of Riccio.

Scottish: variant spelling of Muir. Welsh: from mawr ‘big’ (see Moore). French: nickname for a dark-skinned person, from Old French more ‘Moor’ (Latin maurus) (see Moore 2). French (also Moré): nickname from Old French of more ‘Moor’ or from moré, moret ‘dark brown’ (diminutive forms). The term was also used to refer to dark-colored cloth. French (Moré): from a short pet form of a Germanic personal name beginning with Maur-, Mor- ‘Moor’, for example, Morbold (+ bold ‘bold’, ‘brave’) or Morbert (+ berht ‘bright’, ‘famous’). Indian (Maharashtra); pronounced as two syllables: Hindu (Maratha) name, probably from Marathi mor ‘peacock’ (Sanskrit mayura). It is based on the name of a Maratha clan.

Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese: ethnic name for someone from Lombardy (see Lombard) specifically, or more generally for someone from northern Italy, as opposed to the south (i.e. the area once under Byzantine rule). In the form Lombardos it is also found as a Greek family name.

A surname of Jewish descent, denotes a characteristic of the profession who performed some young people in the Middle Ages, called the garzoneria, its purpose was to serve their lords caballeros. The meaning is similar to that used in France: "Garçon" handsome young man but servant for example it is used to call the waiter.

Italian: occupational name from barbiere ‘barber-surgeon’ (see Barber), from Late Latin barbarius, a derivative of barba ‘beard’.

Spanish and Portuguese: occupational name for any of various officials who had to take an oath that they would perform their duty properly, from jurado ‘sworn’, past participle of jurar ‘to swear’ (Latin iurare).

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Portuguese: habitational name from a place so named in Alveiro, which probably takes its name from the personal name Álvaro (see ALvaro).

Italian: from Italian bianco ‘white’ (of Germanic origin; compare Old High German blanc ‘bright’, ‘shining’, ‘white’, ‘beautiful’), originally applied as a nickname for a man with white or fair hair or a pale complexion, or for someone who habitually wore white, especially in jousting or other competitions, and later used as a personal name.

Italian: occupational name for a smith or iron worker, from ferro ‘iron’ (Latin ferrum).

Found in Aragon. Derived from Greek word meaning to baptize. Also found in Baptista (see) and nickname is "Titta." Name in honor of John the Baptist.

Italian and Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places named with campo ‘field’, ‘country(side)’, a derivative of Latin campus ‘plain’. Possibly a respelling of French Campeau.

Italian: patronymic or plural form of Pellegrino.

Spanish: from dorado ‘golden’ (from Late Latin deaurare ‘to gild’, from aurum ‘gold’), probably applied as a nickname to someone with golden hair.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish (Gálvez): patronymic from the medieval personal name Galve (Arabic Ghalib ‘triumphant’), which was borne by various Moorish chieftains in Spanish history and legend, notably the father-in-law of Al-Mansur, the 10th-century vizier of Córdoba.

Spanish form of Basque Loiola: habitational name from Loiola in Guipúzcoa and Biscay provinces, named from Basque loi ‘mud’ + the locative suffix -ola.

Italian: patronymic or plural form of Molinaro.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Puebla, meaning ‘settlement’ (Latin popula).

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Santander province named Arredondo, from redondo ‘round’, because of the roundish shape of the hill on which it stands.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish and Portuguese: from the personal name Jorge, a borrowing of French (and English) George.

Spanish: occupational name for a barber-surgeon (see Barber), Spanish barbero, from Late Latin barbarius, a derivative of barba ‘beard’ (Latin barba).

Spanish: habitational name from Poblete in the province of Ciudad Real.

Italian: patronymic or plural form of Rinaldo.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: unexplained.

Spanish: variant of Carballo.

Basque: variant of Bizcarra (alongside Viscarra and Biscarra), a topographic name from Basque bizcar ‘shoulder (of a mountain)’ + the definite article -a.

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places called Arenas, from the plural of arena ‘sand’ (Latin (h)arena).

Spanish and Portuguese: from the personal name Marcos (see Mark 1).

Spanish: habitational name from places in the provinces of Cantabria, Palencia, and Burgos named Olea, possibly from Basque ola ‘forge’, ‘ironworks’ + the definite article -a.

Italian and Jewish (from Italy): from the medieval personal name Vitale (Latin Vitalis, a derivative of vita ‘life’). The name was popular with Christians as a symbol of their belief in eternal life, and was borne by a dozen early saints; it became especially popular in Emilia-Romagna because of two saints, San Vitale of Bologna and Ravenna. As a Jewish personal name it represents a calque of the Hebrew personal name Chayim ‘life’. Compare Hyams.

Italian: variant of Monte, from the plural.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: occupational or topographic name from the plural of Spanish fruto ‘fruit’. Catalan (Frutós): variant of the Catalan personal names Fructuós or Fruitós (from Latin Fructuosus), or variant of the habitational name from Sant Fruitós del Bages, a town in the district of El Bages, in Catalonia.

Ancient surname found in Valencia and in Majorca. This is a form of the name Sancho.Variation of the Basque word "anzo" meaning pasture.Aragonese name from Jaca (Huesca) and very common throughout the Peninsula. One branch in Navarre in Peralejos, political subdivision of Molina (Guadalajara) in the 14th century.

Italian: from the personal name Gentile, a continuation of Late Latin Gentilis meaning ‘of the same stock (Latin gens)’ and then ‘non-Christian’, ‘pagan’; as a medieval name it was an omen name with the sense ‘noble’, ‘courteous’, also ‘delicate’, ‘charming’, ‘graceful’ (Italian gentile). In some cases the surname may have arisen from a nickname, sometimes possibly ironical, from the same word. English: variant of Gentle.

Muslim (widespread throughout the Muslim world): from the Arabic personal name ?Ali ‘high’, ‘lofty’, ‘sublime’. Al-?Ali ‘the All-High’ is an attribute of Allah. Abdul-?Ali means ‘servant of the All-High’. ?Ali ibn Abi ?Talib (c. 600–661), the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, was the fourth and last of the ‘rightly guided’ khalifs (ruled 656–61) and the first imam of the Shiite Muslims. His assassination led to the appearance of the Shiite sect.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: habitational name from Villavicencio de los Caballeros, a place in Valladolid province, named from villa ‘(outlying) farm’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + the personal name Vicencio.

Spanish: habitational name from La Salina in Teruel province, or a topographic name from salina ‘saltworks’, ‘salt marsh’.

Italian: patronymic or plural form of Riccio.

Spanish: probably a habitational name from any of various places, mainly in southern Spain, named La Mesa, from Latin mensa ‘table’, with reference to a topographic feature.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Gallegos, originally denoting a place settled by ‘people from Galicia’.

Italian, Catalan, Portuguese, southern French (Occitan), and Romanian: from sala ‘hall’, hence a topographic name or an occupational name for someone employed at a hall or manor house. Both the Italian and Catalan names may also be of habitational origin: in the case of Italian, from (amongst others) Sala Biellese (Biella province), Sala Consilina (Salerno province), and Sala Monferrato (Alessandria), and in the case of Catalan from places called Sala or La Sala. This name is very common in Catalonia. Spanish, Asturian-Leonese, and Aragonese: in some cases, habitational name from places called Sala (Asturies and Aragón) or La Sala (Asturies). Hungarian: from a short form of the Biblical name Salamon (see Solomon). Muslim: variant of Salah.

Galician: habitational name from any of several places in Lugo province named Neira.

Spanish: from palomo ‘pigeon’, ‘dove’. Compare Palombo.

Italian: nickname from caruso ‘close-cropped’ (Latin cariosus ‘decayed’, also ‘smooth’, ‘bald’). This word was also used in the more general sense ‘boy’, ‘lad’, since in the Middle Ages young men of fashion sometimes wore their hair much shorter than was the prevailing style. In the Girgenti area of Sicily the term was a metonymic occupational name for a worker in the sulfur pits, since such workers were required to wear their hair short.

Catalan: habitational name from any of the numerous places so named, from Catalan roca ‘rock’. This name is also Occitan.

Spanish, Italian, and Romanian: habitational name from any of the places named in any of these languages with this element. Its meaning is various and disputed; the coincidence in form with Latin alba (feminine) ‘white’ is suggestive, but in many cases the name is pre-Roman and denotes a site on a hill or mountain.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: unexplained. Perhaps a habitational name from a place so named in Estremadura. This name is common in Argentina, Chile, and Mexico.

Northern Italian: habitational name from any of various places called Solaro or Solara, from solaro ‘site’, ‘plot’, ‘meadow’, literally ‘land exposed to the sun’.

Portuguese: topographic name from barba, a type of plant, + -oso ‘place rich in this plant’.

Spanish: habitational name from Toro in Zamora province, called Campos Gotorum in the Middle Ages. Spanish: nickname from toro ‘bull’ (usually in the form Del Toro). Italian: nickname for a lusty person or a metonymic occupational name for a tender of bulls, from Italian toro ‘bull’ (Latin taurus). Italian: from a short form of the personal name Ristoro. Estonian or Finnish: unexplained.

Spanish: variant spelling of Ledesma.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: from a nickname based on valiente ‘brave’.

Italian, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, and Jewish (Sephardic): from a medieval personal name, a short form of Bonaventura or Buenaventura, meaning ‘good fortune’, or, in the case of the Italian name, a nickname from ventura ‘fortune’, ‘luck’. The name Bonaventura was borne in honor of a saint (1221–74) who was given this nickname by St. Francis of Assisi when he cured him miraculously as a child.

Basque: habitational name from either of two places in Biscay province called Urrutia, named with Basque urruti ‘distant’ + the definite article -a.

patronymic or plural form of Mariano. in some cases, a habitational name from Mariano in Bergamo, or Mariano Comense in Como, although as a Lombardic surname it is unlikely to have contributed greatly to the American surname.

Spanish: habitational name for someone ‘from Zamora’, from an adjectival form of the place name. Spanish: possibly also habitational name for someone from Zanbrana, a town in Araba province, Basque Country. Italian: of uncertain derivation; it is thought by some authorities, on the basis of the form Zammarano to be a habitational name for someone from Zammaro, part of San Gregorio d’Ippona in Vibe Valentia province, hypercorrection of -mm- to -mb- being a characteristic of southern dialect.

Spanish: from the personal name Bautista, Spanish form of Baptist.

Portuguese: patronymic from the medieval personal name Didacus (genitive Didaci). Compare Diego. This name is also common in the former Portuguese colony of Goa and elsewhere on the west coast of India, having been taken there by Portuguese settlers.

Catalan (Salvà): from the personal name Salvá, Catalan form of Latin Silvanus (a derivative of silva ‘wood’). Southern French (Occitan): from a variant of the personal name Salvat, Occitan equivalent of Salvato.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: habitational name from a town of this name in Burgos province.

Italian: patronymic or plural form of Castello.

Basque: habitational name for someone from one of the places in the Basque Country called Larrea, from larre ‘pasture’, ‘meadow’ + the definite article -a.

Italian: patronymic form of Martino. German: Latinized patronymic from Martin 1.

nickname or metonymic occupational name from mazza ‘club’, ‘mace’, ‘sledge hammer’. nickname for a destructive individual, from a derivative of Italian (am)mazzare ‘to kill or destroy’ (Latin mactare).

Portuguese: habitational name from any of the places named Paiva, which all take their name from the Paiva river, a tributary of the Douro.

Basque: habitational name from Zamudio in Biscay province, so named from Basque zame ‘ravine’ + dio ‘terrain with water’.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: from cabello ‘hair’ (Latin capillus, a collective noun), applied as a nickname for a man with a particularly luxuriant growth of hair, or perhaps ironically for a bald man.

Spanish (Carrión): habitational name from a place of this name in the Spanish province of Ciudad Real, or from Carrión de los Céspedes in Seville, or Carrión de los Condes in Palencia.

Spanish: habitational name from Vilches, a place in Jaén province.

Spanish: habitational name from Arellano in Navarre, named in Late Latin as fundus Aurelianus ‘the farm or estate of Aurelius’.

French, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, and Hungarian (Gáspár): from the personal name, which was common in central Europe up to the 18th century (see Casper). Slovenian (mainly Prekmurje in easternmost Slovenia; Gašpar): from a dialect form of the personal name Gašper (see Casper).

Spanish: topographic name for someone living on or by a cluster of hillocks, from the plural of cabeza ‘head’, ‘hillock’ (see Cabeza).

Spanish: habitational name, probably from Espejo in Córdoba province, or otherwise from one of the minor places so named in Málaga and Araba provinces; the place name is evidently connected with espejo ‘mirror’ (Latin speculum).

Italian: patronymic or plural form of the nickname Mancino.

Spanish: from monje ‘monk’ (a loanword from Old Occitan, from Latin monachus). Compare Monge.

Spanish (Millán): variant of Milían (see Milian). Galician: patronymical name from Millán, from a reduced form of a personal name from Latin Aemilianus (see Milian). Galician: in some cases, possibly a habitational name from any of the places in Galicia called Millán, from Latin villa Aemiliani ‘villa of Aemilianus’. Scottish: shortened form of McMillan.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Basque: habitational name from Elizondo, a town in Navarre, or topographic name for someone who lived near a church, from eleiza ‘church’ + the suffix -ondo ‘near’, ‘beside’.

Italian (Ré): from re ‘king’, possibly denoting someone who lived by or worked in a royal court, or someone who behaved in regal fashion, had played the part of a king in a pageant, or who had earned the title in some contest of skill. Northern Italian (Re): habitational name for someone from a place named with ré ‘river’, for example Re in Novara. French (Ré): habitational name from a place so named in Indre or from the Ile de Ré.

Southern Italian: patronymic or plural form of Spinello.

Americanized spelling of Basque Etxeberri (see Echeverri).

Balderrama might have changed from Valderrama at some point in time.

Spanish (Guillén): from the personal name Guillén, Spanish equivalent of William.

Spanish: generally an approving (or ironic) nickname, from Spanish bueno ‘good’.

German (also Wägner) and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a carter or cartwright, from an agent derivative of Middle High German wagen ‘cart’, ‘wagon’, German Wagen. The German surname is also well established in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, eastern Europe, and elsewhere as well as in German-speaking countries.

"Toro" from the latin "taurus" - bull - is here applied to "a very robust and strong man, who cannot be easily deceived because of his saintly experience."

Italian: patronymic or plural form of Lombardo.

Spanish: habitational name from Lucena in Andalusia.

Galician, Portuguese, and Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named for the dedication of their churches to St. James (Sant Iago). The apostle St. James the Greater is the patron saint of Spain; there is a medieval legend that, after the death of Christ, he did not meet a speedy end under Herod Agrippa, but visited and evangelized the Iberian peninsula. His alleged burial site at Compostela has been a place of pilgrimage from all over Europe for over a thousand years.

An Arabic name, meaning 'servant of God' (Allah).Abdala in Brazil might commonly be borne by Lebanese immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century. In Lebanon, it might originally represent a Christian surname - not Muslim.

Italian: from the female personal name Viola, from viola ‘violet’ (Latin viola). Catalan: probably from viola ‘fiddle’, ‘viol’, hence an occupational nickname for a viol player; otherwise a byname from viola ‘violet’.

variant of Capitano. (Cattanèo) habitational name for someone from Catania.

Catalan and Italian: topographic name from Latin casa ‘house’ + nova ‘new’, or a habitational name from any of the many places named with these words.

Spanish: variant of Obando.

Spanish (Esteban): from the personal name Esteban, Spanish vernacular form of Latin Stephanus (see Steven).

English and French: from a medieval personal name of which the original form was Latin Aegidius (from Greek aigidion ‘kid’, ‘young goat’). This was the name of a 7th-century Provençal hermit, whose cult popularized the name in a variety of more or less mutilated forms: Gidi and Gidy in southern France, Gil(l)i in the area of the Alpes-Maritimes, and Gil(l)e elsewhere. This last form was taken over to England by the Normans, but by the 12th century it was being confused with the Germanic names Gisel, a short form of Gilbert, and Gilo, which is from Gail (as in Gaillard). Irish: adopted as an Anglicized equivalent of Gaelic Ó Glaisne, a County Louth name, based on glas ‘green’, ‘blue’, ‘gray’.

Portuguese: unexplained. variant of German Tewes.

From the personal name Andres, a vernacular form of Andreas in various European languages, including Spanish Andrés, French (Breton) Andrès, German Andres, Czech Andrejs, etc.

Italian and Spanish: regional name for someone from Tuscany (Italian Toscana) in Italy.

Italian: nickname from lóngo ‘tall’, ‘lanky’, a dialect variant of lungo (from Latin longus). In some cases the surname may be Spanish or Portuguese, of the same derivation and meaning.

Italian and Spanish: from the personal name Delfino, from Latin Delphinus, from delphis ‘dolphin’, regarded in medieval times as a symbol of goodness and friendliness.

(Italian) Descendant of Benedetto (blessed).

Italian: from carbone ‘coal’, ‘charcoal’ (Latin carbo, genitive carbonis), as a metonymic occupational name for a coal miner, coal merchant, or charcoal burner or merchant; a topographic name for someone living near an outcrop of coal or in an area where charcoal was produced; or a nickname for someone with exceptionally dark skin or hair.

Spanish: variant of Velasco.

Catalan (Solà): habitational name from any of the minor places called Solà in Catalonia, or topographic name from Catalan solà, ‘place exposed to the sun’. This is a very common Catalan name. Portuguese and Catalan: possibly an occupational nickname for a shoemaker, from sola ‘sole (of a shoe)’.

Spanish: occupational or status name from Spanish merino, the title of a royal or seigneurial functionary who had wide legal and military jurisdiction over a district. The word is from Late Latin maiorinus, a derivative of maior. Compare Mayer and Mayoral.

(Italian) The small, short man; dweller on the low land; descendant of Basso, a pet form of Giacobasso (the supplanter).

Basque: Castilianized form of Jauregi, a habitational name from any of several places in the Basque Country called Jauregi, from Basque jauregi ‘palace’, ‘manor house’.

Italian: from farina ‘wheat flour’ (Latin farina), a metonymic occupational name for a miller or flour merchant. In some cases it may also have been a nickname for someone with a pale complexion. Galician and Asturian-Leonese (Fariña): from Galician and Asturian-Leonese fariña ‘wheat flour’ (Latin farina; compare 1). possibly also Catalan: from farina ‘flour’ (from Latin farina; compare 1).

Italian and Jewish (from Italy): from an adjectival derivative of Puglia, hence a regional name for someone from Apulia.

Asturian-Leonese and Spanish: habitational name from the ancient city of Astorga in León province, named in Latin Asturica.

Spanish, Catalan, and Portuguese: topographic name, from a derivative of Late Latin casale ‘hut’, ‘cottage’.

The double suffix added to "boba" means a small but at the same time great foolishness, or suggests an individual who is large physically but has few brains. It could be the name given for a misunderstanding between two families that was caused by an annoyance but had lasting consequences.

Italian: from the personal name Pagano, Latin Paganus, from a word meaning ‘village dweller’ (see Paine). Spanish equivalent of Catalan Pagà (see Pagan), cognate with 1.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: topographic name for someone who lived by an orange grove, from Spanish naranjo ‘orange tree’ (from naranja ‘orange’, Arabic naránjya), or a habitational name from a place named Naranjo in A Coruña and Códoba provinces. (The word orange reached English from Spanish via Old French and Old Provençal, in which languages the initial n- had already been sporadically lost.)

Portuguese and Galician (Míguez): patronymic from Miguel, a reduced form of Miguelez.

Italian: from testa ‘head’ (Late Latin testa, originally used to denote an earthenware pot); hence a nickname for someone who was exceptionally learned or intelligent or for someone who had a large or otherwise remarkable head. Galician and Portuguese: possibly a nickname from Galician and Portuguese testa ‘forehead’, ‘brow’.

from the personal name Velasco, Belasco, formed with Basque bel- ‘raven’ + the diminutive suffix -sco. in some cases possibly a habitational name from any of various places in Logroño, Soria, and Seville provinces named Velasco.

Italian: patronymic or plural form of Moretto.

Galician: habitational name from Lazo in A Coruña province. Spanish: nickname from Spanish lazo ‘hair ribbon’, ‘shoe lace’.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Villaverde, from villa ‘(outlying) farm’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + verde ‘green’, or a Castilianized spelling of the Galician cognate Vilaverde.

Asturian-Leonese: habitational name from Llanes in Asturies. . Catalan: from the plural of llana ‘wool’, probably a metonymic occupational name for a wool merchant.

Spanish: from infante literally ‘child’, but in Spain also a title borne by the eldest sons of noblemen before they inherited, and in particular by the son of the king of Castile; thus the surname probably originated either as a nickname for one of a lordly disposition or as an occupational name for a member of the household of an infante. Italian: nickname for someone with a childlike disposition, from infante ‘child’ (Latin infans, literally ‘one who cannot speak’).

Italian: topographic name for someone who lived near a tower, usually a defensive fortification or watchtower (from Latin turris), or a habitational name from any of the places named with this word, as for example Torre Annunziata or Torre del Greco in Naples province, Torre de’ Passeri (Pescara, Abruzzo), or Torre di Ruggiero (Catanzaro, Calabria). Galician, Catalan, Aragonese, Spanish, and Portuguese: habitational name from any of the numerous places so named in Galicia (often in the form De la Torre), in Catalonia and Aragon (as for example La Torre de Fontalbella, La Torre del Compte, La Torre de Fluvià), or from any of the many places in Spain and Portugal named Torre or La Torre, from torre ‘(watch) tower’ (of the same etymology as 1).

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places, for example in the provinces of Salamanca, Valladolid, and Segovia, so named encina ‘holm oak’ (Old Spanish lecina, Late Latin ilicina, a derivative of classical Latin ilex, genitive ilicis). Galician (Enciñas): topographic name from the plural from of enciña, a Galician variant of encina.

Spanish: of uncertain derivation; possibly from an old personal name of unexplained etymology.

Spanish: habitational name from either of two places in the Burgos province: Jaramillo de la Fuente or Jaramillo Quemada.

Spanish: habitational name from what is now Spain’s principal city. Throughout the Middle Ages it was of only modest size and importance, and did not become the capital of Spain until 1561. Its name is of uncertain origin, most probably a derivative of Late Latin matrix, genitive matricis ‘riverbed’, much changed by Arabic mediation. Compare Madrigal. There are other, smaller places of the same name in the provinces of Burgos and Santander, and these may also be sources of the surname.

Spanish: patronymic from the personal name Jaime.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish (Dávalos): habitational name, with fused preposition d(e), denoting someone from Ábalos in the province of Soria (see Avalos).

Spanish (of Basque origin): habitational name, in most cases probably from Aibar in Navarre, but in some cases perhaps a variant of Eibar, the name of a place in Gipuzkoa. The place names are from Basque ai ‘side’, ‘slope’ + ibar ‘flood plain’, ‘valley’.

Spanish (Cabaña) and Portuguese: habitational name from a place named with Spanish cabaña ‘hut’, ‘cabin’ (Late Latin capanna, a word of Celtic or Germanic origin).

Italian: from the personal name Orlando, earlier Rolando (see Rowland).

Italian (southern) and Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places named with arena ‘sand’, ‘sandy place’, also ‘arena’, ‘(bull) ring’.

English (Norfolk): unexplained. Romanian: unexplained.

Spanish (Catalán): regional name for someone from Catalonia (Spanish Cataluña).

Catalan: habitational name from any of the various places named Roda, for example Roda de Ter, Roda de Berà, Roda de Ribagorça, from Catalan roda ‘wheel’ (Latin rota), possibly denoting a waterwheel. Greek: variant of Rodias (see Rodia). German: habitation name from any of numerous places, particularly in central eastern Germany, named Roda or Rhoda.

Italian: from an augmentative of the personal name Perro.

One who came from La Torre (the tower), the name of several places in Spain; dweller near the tower or spire.An Aragonese name.See De la Torre, Torres.

Italian: patronymic or plural form of Morello.

ethnic name for a German, alemán. from the old personal name Alemannus, with the same meaning.

Spanish (Sáenz): patronymic from an unidentified personal name.

Spanish: Castilianized form of Soutomaior, a habitational name from the name of two places in Pontevedra and Ourense provinces, Galicia, so named from souto ‘grove’, ‘small wood’ + maior ‘larger’, ‘main’.

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places in Spain, for example Ballesteros de Calatrava in the province of Ciudad Real, Los Ballesteros (Huelva), Ballesteros (Cuenca), and others no longer identifiable, which were probably so named because of their association with ballesteros ‘crossbowmen’, plural of ballestero, an agent derivative of ballesta ‘crossbow’ (see Ballester).

Hispanic (not found in present-day Spain but common in Mexico): it may derive from cervin ‘deer’ (Latin cervus). French: habitational name from a place in Doubs, recorded in the 14th century as Cervins.

Spanish: topographic name for someone living near a spring or well, fuente, with the definite article la.

Spanish form (Echevarría) of Basque Etxeberria: topographic or habitational name from the Basque elements etxe ‘house’ + berri ‘new’ + the definite article -a. This is the origin of the name of a village near Pamplona, now called Xabier, the birthplace of St. Francis Xavier (1506–52), missionary to East Asia.

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places called Castellanos, denoting a ‘place founded or inhabited by Castilians’. Greek (Kastellanos): topographic name from an adjectival derivative of kastello ‘castle’ (from Late Latin castellum, a diminutive of castrum ‘fort’, ‘Roman walled city’).

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Catalan: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Riera or La Riera, from Catalan riera ‘stream’ (Late Latin rivaria). There are various places in northern Spain named with this word, for example in the province of Tarragona, and the surname may also be a habitational name from any of these.

Spanish (Vílchez): variant of Vilches.

Italian: patronymic or plural form of Bernardo.

Portuguese: the usual Portuguese form of Alvares.

Spanish: from the personal name Juan, Spanish equivalent of John.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish and Portuguese: from the personal name Casimiro, Spanish and Portuguese equivalent of Casimir. See also Kazmierczak.

Galician: habitational name from either of two places in Galicia named Ulloa (in A Coruña and Lugo provinces).

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places called Carabajal, from a collective noun derived from carbajo ‘oak tree’.

Italian: patronymic or plural form of Marchetto, from a pet form of the personal name Marco.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish (Chavarría): variant of Echevarria.

Spanish: topographic name for someone who lived where reeds grew, Spanish junco, from Latin iuncus. Asturian-Leonese: Castilianized form of Xuncu, a habitational name from either of two places in Asturies named with this word, especially the one in the district of Ribesella. Galician: Castilianized form of Xunco, a habitational name from a town of this name in Galicia.

Batalla, as a Catalan surname, comes from the Latin, battalia, from battuere, meaning 'to beat'.

Portuguese and Galician: variant spelling of Vieira.

Italian and Jewish (from Italy): habitational name from the Sicilian city of Palermo, the Greek name of which is Panormos, from pan ‘all’ + ormos ‘gulf’, ‘bay’, probably in the sense ‘wide gulf’, but possibly ‘well-protected bay’.

Spanish: habtational name of any of the many places called (Los) Corrales, plural of Corral, plural of Corral.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: status name for a married man, the head of a household, from Spanish casado, past participle of casar ‘to marry’ (a derivative of casa ‘house’).

Spanish (of Basque origin; Mújica): habitational name from Basque Muxika, in Biscay province, Basque Country.

Spanish: habitational name from Mayorga in Valladolid province (Latin Maiorica).

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name for an inhabitant of Soria in Castile, from the adjective soriano ‘from Soria’. Southern Italian: habitational name from Soriano Calabro in Vibo Valentia province or Soriano nel Cimino in Viterbo, or of the same derivation as 1.

French, Spanish (Denís), and Portuguese: from the personal name Denis (Spanish Denís), variant of Dennis. Ukrainian: from the personal name Denys (see Dennis).

Southern Italian: habitational name for someone from the city of Cosenza (Latin Consentia), from an adjectival form of the place name.

The surname Berríos is consider to be a locational in origin. Research indicates that it can be associated with the Spanish surname Berríos. It comes from barrio or barr, meaning: new sections of a town, or districts. For this reason the name Berríos comes from the name of four towns in the Northern Spain: the Vasca region of Vizcaya and Navarra.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

A Spanish surname; the coat of arms is a snake in a grey field.

This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Orme' (Orm, Domesday); compare the local Urmston, Ormston, Ormsby, Ormskirk, Ormerod, and the Great Orme's Head. In this last the meaning Orm, the serpent (whence worm), comes out, i.

Italian: from a pet form of the personal name Martino.

Italian: nickname for a stout man, from grasso ‘fat’ (Latin crassus).

English, French, German, Italian (Venetian), Polish, Czech and Slovak (Fabián), and Hungarian (Fábián): from a personal name, Latin Fabianus, a derivative of the Roman family name Fabius. The personal name achieved considerable popularity in Europe in the Middle Ages, having been borne by a 3rd-century pope and saint. Americanized or Italianized spelling of Slovenian Fabjan or Fabijan (see 1). Jewish: adoption of the non-Jewish surname under the influence of the Yiddish personal name Fayvish.

Southern Italian: habitational name from any of various places called Massa, for example Massa Lubrense or Massa di Somma, both in Naples province, or Masse d’Albe in Aquila, all named from medieval Latin massa ‘holding’, ‘estate’ (from Latin massa ‘mass’, ‘lump’, ‘pile’, Greek maza).

Italian: nickname for a cheerful person, from grillo ‘cricket’ (Late Latin grillus). Respelling of French Grillot.

It derives from the name Gherardo (from the Germanic Gerald and means 'able to handle the spear'), of which there are testimonies in Languedoc in the eleventh century with Giraudus de la Breviera.Giraudo and Giraudi are typically Piedmontese surnames, from Cuneo and Turin in particular.

Italian: patronymic from the personal name Oliviero.

Spanish, Portuguese, Jewish (Sephardic), and Italian: habitational name from any of numerous places called Belmonte (‘beautiful mountain’), especially one in Portugal and another in Cuenca province, Spain.

Italian: from the title of rank conte ‘count’ (from Latin comes, genitive comitis ‘companion’). Probably in this sense (and the Late Latin sense of ‘traveling companion’), it was a medieval personal name; as a title it was no doubt applied ironically as a nickname for someone with airs and graces or simply for someone who worked in the service of a count. English: variant of Count, cognate with 1. French: nickname for someone in the service of a count or for someone who behaved pretentiously, from Old French conte, cunte ‘count’ (of the same derivation as 1). French (Conté): variant of Comté (see Comte).

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Italian (Sicily; Calivà): topographic name of medieval Greek origin, from kalyba ‘hut’, ‘shelter’.

Spanish: habitational name from any of several places named Talavera, especially Talavera de la Reina in Toledo province.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: from palomino ‘squab’, ‘young pigeon’, a derivative of paloma ‘dove’.

Basque: habitational name from Samaniego in Araba, Basque Country.

Spanish (also Portuguese): nickname from rico ‘rich’.

Italian (Liguria): possibly from an old Germanic personal name, Rebi, Rabo, Rappo, which may have given rise to a hypothetical Repo.

Spanish and Portuguese: topographic name for someone living by a lake, from lago ‘lake’ (from Latin lacus), or habitational name from any of the many places named with this word.

Portuguese: patronymic from the personal name Martim, vernacular form of Latin Martinus (see Martin). English and Dutch: patronymic from the personal name Martin.

Italian: patronymic or plural form of Marino.

Spanish, Catalan, and Portuguese: from the popular Christian personal name Salvador, meaning ‘Savior’ (Latin Salvator, a derivative of salvare ‘to save’), bestowed in honor of Christ. In some cases, possibly a Spanish, Asturian-Leonese, or Galician habitational name from any of the places called Salvador, in Valladolid, Lugo, and Asturies.

Southern Italian: habitational name from the city of Salerno in Campania.

French, Occitan, Catalan (variant of Ponç), and Dutch: from a medieval personal name (see Ponce).

Spanish (Góngora) from Basque: habitational name from Basque Gongora, a place in the Aranguren valley in Navarre, Basque Country.

This surname is derived from an occupation. 'the villain,' i.e. the small farmer, the bondman, servant. The surname, though common, gradually got dropped as the term became de graded to its later sense.William le Vileyn, Huntingdonshire, 1273.

Galician: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Pazos, from the plural of pazo ‘palace’, ‘manor’. Compare Spanish Palacios.

English: status name for a mayor, Middle English, Old French mair(e) (from Latin maior ‘greater’, ‘superior’; compare Mayor). In France the title denoted various minor local officials, and the same is true of Scotland (see Mair 1). In England, however, the term was normally restricted to the chief officer of a borough, and the surname may have been given not only to a citizen of some standing who had held this office, but also as a nickname to a pompous or officious person. German and Dutch: variant of Meyer 1. Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Meyer 2.

German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a weaver, Middle High German wëber, German Weber, an agent derivative of weben ‘to weave’. This name is widespread throughout central and eastern Europe, being found for example as a Czech, Polish, Slovenian, and Hungarian name.

from the religious personal name Trinidad ‘Trinity’, often bestowed on someone born on the feast of the Holy Trinity. habitational name for someone from any of the many places named La Trinidad.

English, Portuguese, Galician, Spanish, Catalan, and French: occupational name for a shepherd, Anglo-Norman French pastre (oblique case pastour), Portuguese, Galician, Spanish, Catalan, pastor ‘shepherd’, from Latin pastor, an agent derivative of pascere ‘to graze’. The religious sense of a spiritual leader was rare in the Middle Ages, and insofar as it occurs at all it seems always to be a conscious metaphor; it is unlikely, therefore, that this sense lies behind any examples of the surname. German and Dutch: humanistic name, a Latinized form of various vernacular names meaning ‘shepherd’, for example Hirt or Schäfer (see Schafer). Americanized spelling of Hungarian Pásztor, an occupational name from pásztor ‘shepherd’.

German, Dutch, Scandinavian, Slovenian, Czech, Hungarian, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): ethnic or regional name for someone from Franconia (German Franken), a region of southwestern Germany so called from its early settlement by the Franks, a Germanic people who inhabited the lands around the river Rhine in Roman times. In the 6th–9th centuries, under leaders such as Clovis I (c. 466–511) and Charlemagne (742–814), the Franks established a substantial empire in western Europe, from which the country of France takes its name. The term Frank in eastern Mediterranean countries was used, in various vernacular forms, to denote the Crusaders and their descendants, and the American surname may also be an Americanized form of such a form. English, Dutch, German, etc.: from the personal name Frank, in origin an ethnic name for a Frank. This also came be used as an adjective meaning ‘free’, ‘open-hearted’, ‘generous’, deriving from the fact that in Frankish Gaul only people of Frankish race enjoyed the status of fully free men. It was also used as a Jewish personal name.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish (Gerónimo) and Italian: from the personal name Geronimo, from Greek Hieronymos (see Hieronymus).

Galician (Nóvoa): habitational name from the former Galician juridical district Terra de Nóvoa, in Ourense province.

Spanish (also Ábrego): from ábrego, which originally meant ‘African’, from Latin africus. The vocabulary word in modern Spanish has lost this general sense and now means only ‘south wind’, literally, ‘African (wind)’.

Spanish (Núñez): patronymic from the personal name Nuño (see Nuno).

Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician: from the personal name Marcial, Latin Martialis ‘martial’, literally ‘of or pertaining to Mars’ (the god of war).

Asturian-Leonese and Spanish (Valdés): habitational name from either of the two places called Valdés in Málaga and Asturies. Catalan (Valdès): nickname from Catalan valdès ‘Waldensian’, i.e. a member of a Puritan religious sect which was founded in the 12th century by Peter Valdes (died 1205) in southern France. The widespread distribution of the surname in present-day Spain, however, suggests that other sources may also have been involved.

Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese: from the personal name Clemente (see Clement).

Spanish and Italian: from the personal name Olivero (see Oliver). Catalan (Oliveró): topographic name, from a diminutive of oliver ‘olive tree’. Spanish: habitational name for someone from Oliva de la Frontera, in Badajoz province.

Spanish: variant of Belasco.

topographic name for someone who lived in the lower part of a village, from Basque uri ‘settlement’ + be(h)e ‘lower part’. habitational name from Uribe, a town in Biscay province, Basque Country.

Variant of Spanish González (see Gonzalez).

Galician and Portuguese: habitational name from places called Silveira in Lugo and Pontevedra provinces or a topographic name from silveira ‘woodland’, a collective derivative of silva.

French and English (of Norman origin): habitational name from any of various places in France called Verdun. The place name is probably of Gaulish origin, deriving from ver(n) ‘alder’ + dun ‘hill’, ‘fortress’. Some early bearers of the name certainly came from a place of this name in La Manche, others possibly from one in Eure.

Italian (Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna), Spanish, Portuguese, and Jewish (from Italy): topographic name for someone who lived on or near a mountain, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese monte (Latin mons, genitive montis). Italian and Jewish (from Italy): habitational name from any of the places named with Monte or Monti.

Italian: habitational name from any of the numerous places throughout Italy named or named with rocca ‘fortress’, ‘stronghold’.

Spanish: nickname from the past participle of hurtar ‘to rob or conceal’ (Late Latin furtare, from furtum ‘theft’, fur ‘thief’). The reference was probably to an illegitimate child, whose existence was concealed, or to a kidnapped child.

Spanish: from cuesta ‘slope’, ‘bank’ (Latin costa ‘rib’, ‘side’, ‘flank’, also used in a transferred topographical sense), hence a topographic name for someone who lived on a slope or riverbank, less often on the coast, or a habitational name from a place named with this word, as for example La Cuesta, in the provinces of Segovia and Soria.

Italian, Catalan, Galician, southern French (Occitan), and Jewish (Sephardic): topographic name for someone who lived near the gates of a fortified town, from Latin porta ‘gate’. This is also found as a Polish name, with the same origin.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Italian and Spanish: from Italian lovera, Spanish lobera ‘wolf pack’ or ‘wolves’ lair’. In Spain this family name, also spelled Lobera, is also a habitational name from any of several places called Lobera or La Lobera.

Spanish: habitational name from any of various minor places named Manzano, or a topographic name for someone who lived by an apple tree or orchard, from Spanish manzano ‘apple tree’, Old Spanish maçano, from maçana ‘apple’, Late Latin (mala) Mattiana, a type of apple named in honor of the 1st century bc horticultural writer Gaius Matius.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Italian: of uncertain origin; possibly a topographic name from Latin caenum ‘mud’. Polish: from cena ‘price’, presumably a nickname for a trader or dealer.

Basque: variant of Zabala 1.

Spanish: from the personal name Cayo, Spanish equivalent of Gaetano. possibly also from the Castilianized form of Asturian-Leonese Cayu, a habitational name from either of two places in Asturies named El Cayu.

Italian: patronymic or plural form of Marcone.

Santa Maria: meaning "Holy Mary" in Spanish and Italian. Name adopted by converted Jews forced to believe in Christianity, changing their last names to religious names given by the Spanish kingdom.(other)Coming from the Spanish region of Andalusia, El Puerto de Santa María was home to other bearers of the last name.

Spanish: ethnic name from moro ‘Moor’. Italian: variant of Mauro.

Portuguese and Spanish: from Portuguese monge, Spanish monje ‘monk’ (a loanword from Old Occitan, from Latin monachus). French: from a short form of Demonge, a pet form of the personal name Dominique (see Domingo). Norwegian: habitational name from a farmstead in Romsdal named Monge.

Surname common in Vizcaya, and name of principal city there. Meaning unknown.Bilbao could mean the "desembocadura del río," or the mouth of the river.Basque name of toponymic origin. Members belonged to Order of Santiago.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Italian: patronymic or plural form of Parise.

Italian: nickname from traverso ‘transverse’ in any of several transferred senses: ‘thick-set’, ‘broad-shouldered’; less commonly ‘cross-eyed’, ‘squinting’, or ‘hostile’, ‘perverse’.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Puente, from puente ‘bridge’.

Spanish: topographic name from Spanish collado ‘hill’, ‘mountain pass’, from Late Latin collatum, a derivative of Latin collis ‘hill’.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

German and Dutch: from Middle High German meier, a status name for a steward, bailiff, or overseer, which later came to be used also to denote a tenant farmer, which is normally the sense in the many compound surnames formed with this term as a second element. Originally it denoted a village headman (ultimately from Latin maior ‘greater’, ‘superior’). Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the Yiddish personal name Meyer (from Hebrew Meir ‘enlightener’, a derivative of Hebrew or ‘light’). Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Meidhir, from meidhir ‘mirth’. Danish: variant spelling of Meier 3.

French, German, and Dutch: from the personal name Michel (see Michael). Basque: variant from the personal name Mitxel, equivalent of Michael. Polish: from a variant of the personal name Michal (see Michael). Greek: shortened form of any of various patronymic derivatives of Michael, for example Michelakis, Michelakakis, or Michelakos.

Spanish: habitational name from the city so named in Cáceres province, called in Latin Turgalium, which is probably of Arabic origin. This place was the home of various conquistadors, hence its great frequency in the Americas.

Southern Italian: from the personal name Cataldo, popularized in the Middle Ages by the cult of Saint Cataldo, an Irish monk and disciple of Saint Carthage, who on returning from a pilgrimage in the Holy Land settled in Taranto.

Italian (Leóne): from a personal name based on a nickname for a fierce or brave warrior, from leone ‘lion’ (Latin leo, genitive leonis).

Basque: topographic name from aran ‘valley’ + the Basque definite article -a. The name in the U.S. may have absorbed some instances of Araña, from Spanish araña ‘spider’, a nickname for a weaver or for an industrious or opportunistic person.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places in Spain named with fuente ‘spring’, ‘well’ (Latin fons, genitive fontis), as for example Fuente Álamo (in Albacete, Jaén, Córdoba, and Murcia provinces), Fuente del Maestre (Badajoz), or Fuente Palmera (Córdoba). This is one of the most common Spanish place name elements.

Spanish: topographic name for someone who lived by a thoroughfare, from camin ‘path’, ‘way’ (from Late Latin caminus), or a habitational name from any of numerous places named with this word. Italian: topographic name from camino ‘root’, ‘hearth’, ‘furnace’, or ‘olive press’.

Portuguese and Galician: occupational name for a friar, or a nickname for a pious person or someone employed at a monastery, from Latin frater ‘brother’.

Turkish: from the personal name Ozan.

Italian: from a diminutive of Bono.

Northern Italian (Piedmont): variant of Barberi. This is one of a class of surnames typified by the genitive plural suffix -is imparting the sense ‘belonging to’, ‘of’, in this case ‘the barber’s (or surgeon’s) family’. Greek: occupational name from barberis ‘barber’, from Italian barbiere (see 1), or a shortened form of a patronymic derived from this, such as Barberopoulos.

Spanish and Asturian-Leonese: possibly a variant of Cansino, a habitational name from a place named Cansinos in Asturies, or from Los Cansinos in Córdoba province.

Spanish and Portuguese: habitational name from any of numerous places in Galicia in Spain and northern Portugal named Fraga, or, less likely, from the place so named in Uesca province, Aragon; all are named from fraga ‘steep cliff’.

Spanish: habitational name from Carpio in Valladolid province or any of various places in southern Spain named with this word (a regional term meaning ‘hill’), as for example Carpio-Bernardo or El Carpio. Italian (Naples): from the personal name Carpio, a short form of Eucarpio.

Spanish (Peña), Catalan, Portuguese, and Galician: topographic name for someone who lived near a crag or cliff, Spanish peña, Catalan, Galician, and Portuguese pena, a common element of place names.