1000 Most Common Last Names in Venezuela

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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, 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.

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’.

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

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

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.

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

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

Spanish: from the plural of flor ‘flower’.

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

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 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’.

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

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

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: 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).

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

This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. Welsh Ap-Rice or Ap-Rees=son of Rice (q.v).'Item, geven to Harry ap-Rice', 1544: Privy Purse Exp., Princess Mary.Philip ap Rys. Calendarium Rotulorum Patentium in Turri Londinensi.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Spanish (Rondón): apparently linked with the idiomatic expression de rondón ‘random’, ‘unexpected’, ‘surprising’, or from a derivative of Ronda. Italian: possibly a topographic name denoting a place frequented by swifts, from a reduced form of rondone ‘swift’.

Spanish: of uncertain origin. Possibly a habitational name from Marcano, a region of Margarita Island in the Caribbean, northeast of the mainland of Venezuela.

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

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

Spanish: variant of Tobar.

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

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 (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, 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’.

Spanish: habitational name from either of two places called Colmenares, in Palencia and Almería provinces, from the plural of colmenar ‘beehive’, or possibly from a field name with the same meaning.

Spanish: habitational name probably from Escalona in Toledo province; otherwise from Escalona del Prado in Soria.

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

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: probably a variant of Rengel. This name is also found in Portugal.

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

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

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

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: habitational name from Montilla, a place in Córdoba province.

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

Spanish: variant (plural) of Cirino.

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 (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).

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

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.

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, 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 (Bolívar): Castilianized form of Basque Bolibar, a habitational name from any of several places named Bolibar, for example in Biscay province, from Basque bolu ‘mill’ (Latin molinum) + ibar ‘meadow’, ‘riverbank’.

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’.

Italian: from a feminine pet form of Cola.

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

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

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).

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

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

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 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’.

Spanish: habitational name from Morillo de Monclús in Uesca province, from a diminutive of moro ‘Moor’.

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

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 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 (Rincón): habitational name from any of the numerous places named Rincón or El Rincón, from rincón ‘corner’ (Old Spanish re(n)cón, from Arabic rukún).

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

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.

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

Spanish (Mejías): variant of Mejía (see Mejia).

Spanish: habitational name from Villalobos in Zamora province, named from villa ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + lobos, plural of lobo ‘wolf’.

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 (Canary Islands) and Portuguese: from Béthencourt (see Bettencourt), the name (with many variants) of the first conqueror of the Canary Islands (1417), a knight of Norman-French origin. This name is also common and widespread in Latin America.

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.

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.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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

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

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

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

Galician and Portuguese: from a misdivision of Daponte, a topographic name from da ponte ‘from the bridge’.

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

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 (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.

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

Catalan: Castilianized form of Vives.

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.

Portuguese and Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places in Portugal and Spain named Mata, from mata ‘wood’, ‘forest’. Catalan: topographic name from mata ‘scrub’. Hungarian: from a pet form of the personal name Máté (see Matthew).

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

Galician name originating in Portugal.

Spanish: habitational name from Valera in Cuenca province and possibly also from a place with the same name in Badajoz.

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

Spanish form (Páez) of Portuguese and Galician Pais.

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

Spanish (Meléndez): variant of Menéndez (see Menendez).

Spanish (Tenerife): apparently a derivative of the local place name La Perdoma, the seat of the town council of La Orotava, Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canaries).

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: 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.

Basque: habitational name from Urbina in Araba province, Basque Country, or a topographic name probably for someone who lived near a confluence, from Basque ur- ‘water’ + bi ‘two’.

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.

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, Catalan, and Asturian-Leonese: habitational name from any of numerous places named Nava, from nava ‘treeless plateau’, a word of pre-Roman origin, most probably from Basque naba ‘plain next to mountains’. The name is also borne by Sephardic Jews.

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.

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.

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 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 (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: 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.

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’).

Spanish (Chávez): variant spelling of Chaves.

Spanish or Portuguese: unexplained. Compare Villarruel.

Asturian-Leonese and Spanish: plural form of Spanish and Asturian-Leonese Nava (see also Naves). In some cases possibly Catalan (Navàs): variant spelling of Navars, habitational name from a place so called in Barcelona province, from a regional name denoting someone from Navarre (see Navarra) In some cases possibly French: variant (old form) of Naves.

Portuguese and Galician: habitational name from a place called Abreu in Minho province.

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.

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

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.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: topographic name for someone who lived near an oak grove, from a collective noun derivative of carvallo ‘oak’, or a habitational name from a place so named, for example in Málaga province. Compare Carbajal.

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.

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

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.

Basque: habitational name from any of several places in the province of Biscay named with arte ‘holm oak’ + the locative suffix -aga ‘place or group of’.

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

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.

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

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.

My grandpa always told me our surname had been changed when his parents came from Italy, but we found his Italian registers that proves he was born a Figuera, in Trento, Italy. We have also found his name listed in the ship that took him here.

Spanish: variant (plural) of Palacio.

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from a place called Valero in Salamanca province.

Castilianized spelling of Catalan Orpesa, a town in Castelló province. perhaps a habitational name from Oropesa in Toledo.

Spanish: habitational name from Encima-Angulo in Burgos province.

Spanish (Yépez): habitational name for someone from Yepes. See Yepes.

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

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’).

religious byname, from the title María de las Nieves ‘Mary of the Snows’, given particularly to children born on 5 August, on which date the Virgin allegedly once caused it to snow in Rome. It is possible that the surname derives in part from a nickname for someone with snow-white hair. Castilianized form of the Galician and Asturian-Leonese habitational name Neves.

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

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 (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’.

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

Spanish: variant of Carballo.

possibly Basque: unexplained.

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.

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.

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

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

Spanish (Benítez): patronymic from Benito.

Spanish (Yáñez): patronymic from a variant of the personal name Juan, Spanish equivalent of John. Compare Ibanez. Americanized spelling of Slovenian Janež, a derivative of the personal name Janez, Latin Iohannes (see John).

Originally from Italy where it became necessary for people to bear a second name to identify themselves, most commonly adapted from where they lived. Palma was where the original bearer once lived which is in Campania, province of Naples.

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’).

Spanish: patronymic from the personal name Jaime.

Spanish (Henríquez): variant of Enríquez (see Enriquez).

Spanish: probably a shortened form of Basque Zumalabe, Zumalave, a topographic name composed of the elements zume ‘pasture’ + labe ‘oven’.

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.

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

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

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 (Tenerife; Padrón): in some cases a variant of Catalan Padró (see Padro); otherwise from the Spanish equivalent padrón, a variant of patrón ‘master’. Galician: habitational name from Padrón, a town in Galicia.

Spanish: southern variant of Losada.

Spanish: habitational name from Roa in Burgos province.

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: variant of Cortés (see Cortes).

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.

Spanish: unexplained. Perhaps a variant of Pedraza.

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.

A toponymic surname, derived from a village in Spain.

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.

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: occupational name from carrero ‘carter’, a derivative of Latin carrum ‘cart’, ‘wagon’.

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

Spanish and Portuguese: from duque ‘duke’ (from Latin dux, genitive ducis ‘leader’), an occupational name for someone who worked in the household of a duke, or as a nickname for someone who gave himself airs and graces. French (also Duqué): nickname from duquet, a diminutive of French duc ‘duke’ (see Duchon).

Spanish and Portuguese: topographic name for someone who lived by a fortified stronghold, from mot(t)a, a borrowing from Old French motte (see Motte 1). Spanish: habitational name from places in the provinces of Cuenca and Valladolid named Mota. Catalan: topographic name from mota ‘hillock’, denoting someone who lived by a hillock. Catalan: habitational name from places in Girona and Valencia.

Spanish: habitational name from Lucena in Andalusia.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places called Viloria, for example in Valladolid and Burgos provinces. Basque: Castilianized variant of Basque Biloria, a habitational name from either of the two towns in Araba and Navarre provinces named Biloria.

Spanish: habitational name from Polanco in Santander province.

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

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish (Córdova): variant of Cordoba.

Spanish (Alcalá): habitational name from any of the numerous fortified villages named during the Moorish occupation of Spain with Arabic al ‘the’ + qal?ah ‘fortress’.

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

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

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 (Mejía): probably from a religious byname (possibly under Jewish influence), from a vernacular form of Latin, Greek Messias ‘Messiah’, from Hebrew mašia?h ‘anointed’.

Catalan: habitational name from any of several places called Borges in Catalonia, for example, Les Borges Blanques, in Lleida, or Les Borges del Camp, in Tarragona. Portuguese: of disputed etymology; possibly a habitational name for someone from Bourges in France. German: from a short form of the medieval personal name Liborius. Danish: from the German patronymic Borchers.

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.

Spanish: unexplained.

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

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: from an old form of the personal name Olivero (see Oliver).

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.

Southern Italian: probably a variant of Màita (see Maida). This name is now common in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Japanese: ‘rice paddy’; found mostly in western Japan, it is also pronounced as Yoneda, Kometa, and Maida.

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: possibly a nickname for a person with a prominent jaw, from quijada ‘jaw’, ‘jawbone’.

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’).

Spanish: variant spelling of Cirino.

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

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

Spanish: habitational name from the city or region of Palencia in northern Spain.

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: 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.

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.

French: unexplained. Filipino: unexplained.

Portuguese: widespread habitational name from any of numerous places in Portugal named Matos, from mata ‘brushwood’, ‘scrub’, ‘thicket’. Spanish: topographic name, from the plural of Mato. Hungarian: variant of Matus.

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’).

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

Catalan and Spanish: habitational name from Requena in Valencia or Requena de Campos in Palencia, apparently so called from a short form of the various Visigothic compound personal names with the first element ric ‘power(ful)’, with the addition of the locative suffix -ena.

Spanish (Gámez): patronymic from Gamo, a personal name of unexplained origin.

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

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: unexplained. This is a frequent name in Spain.

Spanish (also Monsalvé): unexplained.

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

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, Portuguese, and Galician: nickname from pulido or polido ‘smart’, ‘neat’, ‘handsome’.

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

Spanish: topographic name from caldera ‘basin’, ‘crater’, ‘hollow’ (Latin caldarium ‘hot bath’), a common element of stream and mountain names.

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.

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

Galician: topographic name for someone who lived by a beech tree or in a beech wood, from Late Latin fagea (arbor) ‘beech (tree)’, a derivative of classical Latin fagus ‘beech’.

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.

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.

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.

Catalan and Galician: topographic name from Catalan and Galician cova ‘cave’, or a habitational name from a place named with this word, in the provinces of Lugo, Ourense, Pontevedra, Catalonia and Valencia. Compare Cueva.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Vegas or Las Vegas, from the plural of vega ‘meadow’ (see Vega).

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’).

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

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

Catalan: variant of Montcada, a habitational name from any of the places so named in Valencia and Catalonia.

Spanish: topographic name for someone who lived in a place that was infested with flies or mosquitos, from a derivative of mosca ‘fly’ (see Mosca). Catalan: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Mosquera in Catalonia, Valencia and Andorra.

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).

Galician: variant of Figueiredo.

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

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: from coronado ‘crowned’, past participle of coronare ‘to crown’, applied as a nickname for someone who behaved in an imperious manner.

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: 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’.

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

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Basque: habitational name from a town called Aldana in Biscay province, Basque Country, or topographic name from Basque alde ‘side’, ‘slope’. The ending -ana is common in Basque place names; its meaning is vague: apparently no more than ‘place’.

Spanish: habitational name from a place named Mijares, in particular the one in Ávila province, named from the plural of mijar ‘millet field’, from mijo ‘millet’.

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.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Valbuena, for example in Valladolid, Cáceres, and Salamanca.

Spanish (Vílchez): variant of Vilches.

Spanish: variant spelling of Ledesma.

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: 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’).

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).

Spanish: habitational name from Meneses de Campos (Palencia, Castile), or for an ethnic name for someone from the Mena valley in Burgos. Portuguese: habitational name from any of the several places named Meneses in Portugal.

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

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

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

Spanish (Fermín): from the medieval personal name Fermín, Spanish form of Latin Firminus (see Firmin). French: variant of Firmin.

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.

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

Basque: habitational name from Lezama in Araba province, Basque Country. It is well established in Peru and Venezuela.

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 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.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish, Aragonese, Asturian-Leonese: habitational name from any of the places named Solano (Burgos and Málaga provinces) or El Solano (Asturies, and Uesca, Aragon), named with solano ‘place exposed to the sun’ (Late Latin solanum, a derivative of sol ‘sun’). Spanish and Portuguese: from a personal name adopted in honor of Francisco Solano, a 17th-century missionary to South America. Italian: possibly also from the personal name adopted in honor of Francisco Solano.

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.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: occupational name for a stone breaker, marrero, a derivative of marra ‘hammer’.

French, Catalan, and English (mainly Leicestershire): from Old French or Catalan petit ‘small’, hence a nickname for a small person (or an ironic nickname for a big man), or for the younger of two bearers of the same personal name. This name was common among Catalan Jews. It is also established in Ireland.

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’.

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

Spanish and Galician: variant of Viedma, a habitational name from any of the places called with Viedma.

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 Matute, towns in La Rioja and Soria provinces.

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

Spanish (Velázquez): variant of Velasquez.

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.

Swiss German: from a pet form of a Germanic personal name formed with rang ‘curved’, ‘bending’; ‘slender’. Spanish: habitational name from a place called Rengel in Málaga province.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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: habitational name from Puebla de Sanabria in Zamora province.

Spanish: unexplained.

Dutch: from the personal name Mattheus (see Matthew). Portuguese: variant spelling of Mateus.

Spanish (Albarrán): nickname or occupational name from medieval Spanish albarrán ‘foreigner’, ‘alien’, also ‘chief herdsman or shepherd’ (from Arabic al- ‘the’ + barrani ‘outside’, from barra ‘out’ or barr ‘land’, ‘open country’).

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

Portuguese: variant spelling of Barbosa.

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.

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

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.

Portuguese: from an irregular derivative, of uncertain significance, of Pimenta.

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

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.

Spanish (mainly Mexico): variant of Quiros.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places named Puerta. Compare Porta.

Spanish: from armas ‘arms’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a maker of arms or a soldier.

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.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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

probably variant of Lares. alternatively, perhaps a patronymic from Lara.

Italian and Jewish (from Italy): habitational name from Milan, Italian Milano (from Latin Mediolan(i)um, composed of Celtic elements meaning ‘middle’ + ‘plain’). In some instances the surname may be Spanish, of the same origin as 1 or a habitational name from Milano in Salamanca province.

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, Catalan (Garcés), and Portuguese (Garcês): variant of the patronymic Garciez, from the personal name García (see Garcia).

Spanish: variant spelling of Valdés (see Valdes).

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

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.

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’).

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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.

Asturian-Leonese: habitational name from Noriega in Asturies.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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

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.

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.

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.)

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places called Calzadilla or La Calzadilla, from a diminutive of calzada ‘paved road’, as for example Calzadilla in Cáceres province.

Spanish: probably a topographic name from daza ‘sorghum’. Italian: probably a habitational name from Daza in Messina province, Sicily.

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

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 places called Plaza, from plaza ‘town square’.

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

Spanish (Canary Islands) and Portuguese: unexplained.

Spanish: either a nickname for someone with a big head, from cabeza ‘head’ (Late Latin capitia), or a topographic name from any of the numerous minor places named with this word, which was commonly used to denote a small hill.

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.

Catalan (Vallès): regional name for someone from a region of Catalonia named with vallès ‘of or relating to the valley’ (from Latin vallensis, an adjective derivative of vallis ‘valley’). This name is very common in Catalonia. Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Valles or Los Valles, from valles, plural of valle ‘valley’.

Portuguese and Spanish: status name from old Spanish and Portuguese maestre ‘master’, ‘master craftsman’, ‘teacher’ (Latin magister).

Spanish: from the medieval personal name Galindo, of predominantly Aragonese origin and distribution, but of unknown etymology.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Valderrama, as for example in Burgos province.

Spanish: habitational name from Bonilla in Cuenca province or Bonilla de la Sierra in Ávila 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: habitational name from Burgos, the capital of old Castile.

Spanish: of uncertain derivation; probably a habitational name from one of the places in Galicia called Lira, in A Coruña and Pontevedra provinces.

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

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

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

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Reina. Spanish and Portuguese: most likely from the female personal name Reina (from Latin Regina), otherwise a nickname from reina ‘queen’. Italian: from a Sicilian variant of regina ‘queen’ (see Regina).

Spanish and Italian: from the personal name Urbano (see Urban), or a nickname from urbano ‘urbane’, ‘elegant’.

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: occupational name for a laborer who worked the land, from an agent derivative of labrar ‘to cultivate (land)’.

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

Variant of Spanish Barrios.

Catalan (València) and Spanish: habitational name from any of various places called València or Valencia, principally the major city in eastern Spain, which was formerly the capital of an independent Moorish kingdom of the same name, until it was reconquered in 1239 by James I, king of the Catalan dynasty, and became part of the Crown of Aragon together with the Principality of Catalonia and the Kingdom of Aragon. The city was apparently named from an honorary title derived from Latin valens ‘brave’.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places named Rebolledo, for example Rebolledo de la Torre in Burgos, from rebollo denoting a species of oak.

Useche is a surname of Basque origin originating from the Basque surname, Usaetxe or Usaeche. The name can be found in various informational books and websites about Basque surnames.

Spanish and Italian: topographic name from olivo ‘olive tree’, or occupational name for a seller of olives.

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.

It's the name of a river in Galicia, Spain, in Lugo Province. It comes from the Latin word Lodium (Mud).

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

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.

Spanish: Castilianized form of Asturian-Leonese Tíneu, a habitational name from Tíneu in Asturies.

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

Spanish: habitational name from a Pantoja in Toledo.

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: 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.

Basque: variant of Zabala 1.

Spanish: habitational name from the city of this name, the capital of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain. The city is extremely ancient, having reputedly been founded by the Phoenicians. The origin of the name is obscure, presumably Phoenician. It is first recorded in the Latin form Hispalis, which was adopted in Arabic as Isbilia, and thence into early Spanish as Sibilia, now Sevilla.

Spanish (Flórez): probably a patronymic from the Visigothic personal name Froila, a derivative of fro ‘lord’, ‘master’. The name is also borne by Sephardic Jews.

Spanish (Pabón): variant of Pavón (see Pavon).

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Santander province called Celis.

Spanish and Italian: from Spanish, Italian corona ‘crown’ (Latin corona ‘garland’, ‘chaplet’, ‘diadem’), perhaps applied as a habitational name for someone who lived in a house with this sign, or as a nickname for someone who had a tonsure in fulfillment of a religious vow or who had influence and power. Italian: from the female personal name Corona, of the same derivation as 1.

From Latin Baptista ‘Baptist’ (see Baptiste), a form found in Portugal, Spain (Castile), Germany, and some other countries.

Spanish: habitational name from Porras, a town in Andalusia, or nickname from the plural of porra ‘cudgel’, ‘club’, nickname either for a stockily built person or for a tiresome person. ‘Porras!’ is also used as an idiomatic expression meaning ‘Go to the Devil’. Galician: habitational name from any of three places in Lugo province named Porras.

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

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

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 (Bohórquez): habitational name from a minor place called Bohorques in Santander province.

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

Spanish: probably variant of García (see Garcia).

Castilian name of French origin from Medina de Rioseco.

Spanish (from Basque): Spanish form of a habitational name from any of several Basque towns called Markina, in Araba and Biscay provinces.

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)’.

Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese: of uncertain and multiple origin. In part at least, it is from the Germanic personal name Amalric, introduced to northern Italy by the Lombards and to the Iberian peninsula by the Visigoths. In Sicily, it is from a nickname meaning ‘bitter’, ‘unlucky’, or ‘disappointed’ or from an Arabic personal name ‘Ammar. In Portugal, it is from a personal name Amaro, of disputed origin.

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

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: patronymic from the common medieval personal name Ben Avid, of Arabic origin, from ibn ?Abd ‘son of the servant (of God)’ see Benavidez.

Spanish: variant of Velasco.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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, Catalan, and Portuguese: variant (plural) of Cadena. In Catalan, this form is a respelling of Cadenes.

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.

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.

Spanish: probably a nickname for someone with long limbs, from Spanish tirado ‘stretched’ (past participle of tirar ‘to pull’).

nickname from Spanish granado ‘mature’, ‘experienced’, ‘distinguished’. topographic name or metonymic occupational name for a grower or seller of pomegranates, from granado ‘pomegranate tree’, Latin (pomum) granatum (see Garnett 1).

Portuguese, Galician, and Catalan: topographic name, from a variant of horta ‘irrigated area’ or ‘kitchen garden’.

Aragonese: probably a variant of Miraval, a habitational name from Miraval, in Aragon, formed with mirar ‘to look’, ‘survey’, ‘admire’ + vall ‘valley’.

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

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 Portuguese: mostly from a short form of Spanish (del) Rosario, Portuguese (do) Rosá, from rosario ‘rosary’; or from the Marian name María del Rosario, given in particular to a girl who was born on the festival of Our Lady of the Rosary, celebrated on the first Sunday in October. The word derives from Late Latin rosarium ‘rose garden’, and was transferred to a set of devotions dedicated to the Virgin Mary as the result of the medieval symbolism which constantly compared her to a rose. Italian: from the male personal name Rosario, of the same origin as 1 above.

Spanish: variant of Ovalle.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Portuguese: habitational name from either of two places called Faria, in Braga and Aveiro. Southern Italian (Sicily): topographic name from Greek pharias, a derivative of pharos ‘beacon’, ‘lighthouse’.

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.

Catalan and Galician: habitational name from Prada de Conflent, in northern Catalonia, or any other places in Catalonia and in Galicia named Prada, so named from Catalan prada or a variant of Galician prado ‘meadow’ (Latin pratum). Northern Italian: habitational name from any of numerous places in northern Italy called Prada, from a variant of Prata, cognate with 1 above.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Laguna, from laguna ‘pool’, ‘pond’ (from Latin lacuna ‘hollow’, ‘hole’).

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).

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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

From Mencey Bencomo, the last indigenous king of the Canary Islands, 15th century.

Spanish: probably a nickname from a derivative of mosca ‘fly’ (see Mosca).

Spanish (and Portuguese): possibly from the Basque occupational name Arotxa, Arotza, from arotz (arotx) ‘smith’, ‘carpenter’ + the article suffix -a, or alternatively a topographic from a rocha ‘the rock’ (with the Portuguese or Galician article). This name is chiefly associated with the Canary Islands.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Galician: Castilianized spelling of Valadares, a habitational name from various places in Galicia, so named from a derivative of valado ‘boundary wall’, ‘ditch’ (from Latin vallus, vallum ‘fence’, ‘barrier’, ‘bastion’).

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

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.

English: from Middle English angel ‘angel’ (from Latin angelus), probably applied as a nickname for someone of angelic temperament or appearance or for someone who played the part of an angel in a pageant. As a North American surname it may also be an Americanized form of a cognate European surname, as for example Italian Angelo, Rumanian Anghel, Czech Andel, or Hungarian Angyal. German: ethnic name for a member of a Germanic people on the Jutland peninsula; members of this tribe invaded eastern and northern Britain in the 5th–6th centuries and gave their name to England. See Engel. Slovenian (eastern Slovenia): from the Latin personal name Angelus.

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, Portuguese, and Italian: from the Marian female personal name, Portuguese Maria do Loreto, Italian Maria di Loreto, from Loreto in Ancona province, Italy, the center of a cult of the Virgin Mary dating from the 15th century. Loreto is the site of the Santa Casa, the childhood home of the Virgin Mary, which according to legend was miraculously transported by angels from Nazareth to Loreto in the 13th century. The place name is from Latin lauretum ‘place of laurels’. Compare Loredo.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: habitational name from Buitrago in Soria province or possibly Buitrago del Lozoya in Madrid province, so named with the Late Latin personal name Vulturius (a derivative of vultur ‘vulture’) + the locative suffix -acum.

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

Basque: topographic name from Basque loa ‘mud’, ‘mire’, with the suffix -tza denoting abundance. This name is now well established in Mexico and Colombia.

Spanish: in most cases probably a variant of a topographic name from arcilla ‘clay’ (Latin argilla).

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

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 meaning of this surname is not listed.

Castilianized form of Basque Kaizedo, a habitational name from Kaizedo Behekoa (Caicedo de Yuso in Spanish) or Kaizedo Goikoa (Caicedo Sopeña in Spanish), two towns in the Basque province of Araba.

Catalan (also Galbis): probably a Catalan equivalent of Spanish Gálvez (see Galvez).

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: habitational name from Luque in Córdoba.

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

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

Asturian-Leonese, Spanish, and Catalan: habitational name from any of several minor places named Espina (notably in Asturies), from espina ‘thorn’, ‘prickle’, probably applied in the sense ‘thorn bush’.

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.

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

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

Catalan: habitational name for someone from a place in Barcelona province named Cardona. Its name dates from the pre-Roman period but the meaning is unknown.

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

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places named Higuera, from higuera ‘fig tree’ (Latin ficaria).

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.

Spanish (Morón): habitational name from Morón de Almazán in Soria province or Morón de la Frontera in Seville. The former, and possibly the latter also, is probably named from Arabic maurûr ‘hidden’, from the past participle of wárrà ‘to hide or bury’. Spanish (Morón): in some cases, from a derivative of moro ‘Moor’. French: possibly from the old personal name Maurone. French: possibly in some cases a nickname from Old French moron ‘dreamer’.

Spanish and Catalan: topographic name from rada ‘natural bay’. Spanish and Catalan: habitational name from places called Rada (Cantabria), Rada de Haro (Cuenca), La Rada (Albacete, Cuenca) or Rada de Moraira (Alacant), or from a Castilianized variant of Basque Arrada, habitational name from a place called Arrada in Navarre. Czech: from a short form of any of several Slavic personal names containing the first element rad- ‘glad’, ‘merry’, in particular Radoslav, in which the second element means ‘glory’, and Radomir, in which the second element means ‘great’, ‘famous’. Hungarian: from the old secular personal name Rada or Ráda, of Slavic origin.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Perales, from the plural of peral ‘plantation of pear trees’, ‘pear orchard’, a derivative of pera ‘pear’.

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

Spanish: variant of Ordás, habitational name from Santa María de Ordás in León province.

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

Spanish (Rendón): unexplained; possibly connected with the adverb (de) rendón ‘bold’, ‘daring’, old variant of Spanish rondón (see Rondon).

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Galician: probably a variant spelling of Lemos.

Spanish: variant of Alejo.

Spanish: topographic name from the plural of granado ‘pomegranate tree’ (see Granado 2).

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Soria province.

Italian: habitational name from any of numerous places, large and small, named Prato (from prato ‘meadow’, Latin pratum), the most important of which is the administrative centre of Tuscany.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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’.

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 (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.

Jewish (Israeli): ornamental name from Hebrew ron ‘singing’. Galician: habitational name from Ron, a town in A Coruña, Galicia. Swedish: probably of German origin (see 2). Perhaps an altered spelling of German Rohn or Rönn, a variant of Rönne (see Ronne).

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

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

Spanish (Tórrez): variant of Torres.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Huerta, from huerta ‘vegetable garden’ (Latin hortus). This is also a Sephardic Jewish surname.

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).

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

Spanish and Asturian-Leonese: topographic name meaning ‘place of olives’.

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.

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.

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’).

Found in Vizcaya. Could be misspelling of surname "Arteaga" (see). Could also derive from Spanish "artigar" whose source is the latin "exarticare." If correct, means to conquer or defeat on open ground, i.e., a warrior or group of warriors who won engage­ment by fighting in open field.

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: variant of Cardosa.

Spanish (Colón): from the 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.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Portuguese and Spanish (frequent in Canary Islands): probably a nickname from Portuguese and Galician arvela, a variant of alvéloa a species of bird (Motacilla alba).

Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese: from Spanish verde ‘green’ (Latin viridis), presumably a nickname for someone who habitually dressed in this color or had green eyes, etc. This is also a common element of place names. Italian: from the medieval personal name Verde (see 1 above).

This surname means 'from Vizcaya' (Bizkaia in Basque) in the Basque country. It was also used from the renaissance period to the 19th century as a given name to people of Basque origin. Typically given to those who sailed under the command of Spanish captains.

Spanish: possibly of the same derivation as 2. Italian: from the personal name Polo, a variant of Paolo (see Paul).

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’).

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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

Galician and Spanish: habitational name from either of two places called Ravelo, in Pontevedra, Galicia, and Tenerife.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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.

French: variant of Géron (see Geron). Spanish (Girón): from a medieval nickname Girón, from Galician girón (xirón) ‘hem’, ‘remnant’.

Andrade: It means "the Galician realm of topônimo" or "reference to the new Jews."Andrade is a surname that appeared in the region of Galicia, this onomástica in the Portuguese language as a name of toponymic origin, ie, based on a region or locality.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish (Alcántara): habitational name from any of various places, for example in the provinces of Cáceres, Cádiz, or Castilianized form of Catalan Alcàntera, habitational name from a town in Valencia, all of them named from Arabic al ‘the’ + qan?tara ‘bridge’.

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

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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

Spanish and Italian: from the personal name Valerio (Latin Valerius, a Roman family name ultimately derived from Latin valere ‘to flourish’, ‘to be strong and healthy’). The name was borne by several minor Christian saints, among them 4th-century bishops of Trier and Zaragoza and 5th-century bishops of Sorrento and of Antibes.

Spanish: habitational name from Chinchilla de Monte Aragón in Albacete province.

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.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places, mainly in Castile, named Revilla, from Old Spanish revilla ‘dependent settlement’, a derivative of villa (see Villa).

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places named Puentes, from the plural of puente ‘bridge’.

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

Castilianized form of Basque Aritza, a topographic name from Basque (h)aritz ‘oak’ + the article suffix -a. Spanish: habitational name from a place so named in Zaragoza province in Aragón.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: habitational name from any of several places called Murillo, notably in Navarre, Logroño, and Zaragoza provinces, so named from a diminutive of muro ‘wall’.

Galician, Spanish, and Portuguese: habitational name from any of the places named Rosal or El Rosal, for example in Pontevedra and Huelva provinces, from a collective of rosa ‘rose’, thus ‘rose garden’.

Spanish (mainly Latin America): from a nickname or byname formed with veloz ‘fast’.

Spanish (Zacarías) and Jewish: see Zacharias.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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’.

Spanish: variant of Yáñez (see Yanez).

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

A Catalan surname. It means 'cave of wolves' and also the groove left in the field after plowing. Loberes is the oldest way to write it (XV century).

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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

Spanish: probably from a variant of zorra ‘vixen’, zorro ‘fox’, applied as nickname either for a crafty or devious person, or possibly a lazy one, the Spanish term for the fox meaning literally ‘the lazy one’, from Old Spanish zorro ‘lazy’ (from zorrar ‘to drag’).

Spanish and Portuguese (Júlio), and Italian: from the personal name Julio, a vernacular form of Latin Julius.

Spanish: probably a habitational name from Calles in Valencia province.

Spanish: from mantilla ‘mantilla’, ‘scarf worn over the head and shoulders’, presumably an occupational name for a maker of mantillas or a descriptive name for someone who habitually wore such a garment.

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.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

This surname is derived from an official title. or nick, 'a baron,' or a man who put on an air of dignity such as might become a baron. Middle English baron and barun.Osbert le Barun, Close Roll, 2 Edward I.Richard le Baron, Devon, 1273.

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’.

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

Variant spelling of Spanish Venegas.

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.

Portuguese and Spanish: distinguishing name for the eldest son of a family, from Portuguese morgado ‘first-born’, ‘heir’, Late Latin maioricatus, a derivative of maior (see Mayor 2).

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 (Pinzón): nickname from pinzón ‘finch’.

Basque Izagirre, a variant of Aizagirre, a topographic name for someone who lived in a place exposed to the wind, from Basque aize ‘wind’ + ager, agir ‘visible’, ‘exposed.’

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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: habitational name from Monroy (‘red mountain’), a place in Cáceres province.

Spanish: patronymic from Arabic or Jewish ben ‘son’ + the medieval personal name Ega(s), probably of Visigothic origin. Compare Portuguese Viegas.

Galician: from coello ‘rabbit’ (Latin cuniculus), a nickname for someone thought to resemble a rabbit in some way.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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.

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.

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 (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: topographic name for someone who lived on a street corner, cantillo, or, in Navarre, by irrigated land, the term being used there to denote a ridge dividing a field for the purposes of irrigation.

Spanish: of uncertain derivation; possibly from marrufo literally, ‘lay brother’; figuratively, ‘cunning’, ‘sly’.

Spanish and Portuguese: metonymic occupational name from capote ‘hooded cloak’, ‘cape’.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: variant spelling of Pedrosa.

GRIMMAN: A variant of Grimmond, which see. W. Grimman in Pitrodie, 1816.

This surname refers to those who takes care of tortolas (species of dove).

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

Spanish: nickname from abad ‘priest’ (from Late Latin abbas ‘priest’, genitive abbatis, from the Aramaic word meaning ‘father’). The application is uncertain: it could be a nickname, an occupational name for the servant of a priest, or denote an (illegitimate) son of a priest. Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic ?Abbad ‘devoted worshiper’ or ‘servant’. The banu (tribe) ?Abbad claims descent from the ancient Lakhmid kings of al-?Hirah. The founder of the ?Abbadids of Seville was Muhammad bin ?Abbad (1023–42), whose son ?Abbad succeeded his father as chamberlain to the pretended khalif, but was soon ruling in his own right under the honorific title al-Muta??did ‘petitioner for justice (from Allah)’.

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

Spanish: variant of Alonso.

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

French, Spanish (Gascón), and English: regional name for someone from the province of Gascony, Old French Gascogne (see Gascoigne).

English, southern French, and German: from a vernacular form of the Latin personal name (H)adrianus, originally an ethnic name denoting someone from the coast of the Adriatic (Latin Adria). It was adopted as a cognomen by the emperor who ruled ad 117–138. It was also borne by several minor saints, in particular an early martyr at Nicomedia (died c.304), the patron saint of soldiers and butchers. There was an English St. Adrian (died 710), born in North Africa; he was abbot of St. Augustine’s, Canterbury, and his cult enjoyed a brief vogue after the discovery of his supposed remains in 1091. Later, the name was adopted by several popes, including the only pope of English birth, Nicholas Breakspear, who reigned as Adrian IV (1154–59).

English, French, German, Polish, and Slovenian; Spanish and Hungarian (Jordán): from the Christian baptismal name Jordan. This is taken from the name of the river Jordan (Hebrew Yarden, a derivative of yarad ‘to go down’, i.e. to the Dead Sea). At the time of the Crusades it was common practice for crusaders and pilgrims to bring back flasks of water from the river in which John the Baptist had baptized people, including Christ himself, and to use it in the christening of their own children. As a result Jordan became quite a common personal name.

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

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).

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: habitational name or regional name for someone from the town or province of Biscay (Spanish Vizcaya) in the Basque Country. The place name derives from Basque bizkai ‘ridge’ + the definite article -a. Historically, the term was also used to denote a seafarer and in some cases this may be the meaning behind the surname.

Spanish: probably a topographic name from Estremadura, from the plural of lar ‘farm’. Compare Larez.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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

Portuguese, Spanish, and Galician: nickname from regalado ‘gifted’, ‘pleasant’, ‘capable’.

Spanish and Portuguese: from a personal name derived from the Marian epithet socorro ‘help’, ‘aid’, ‘succor’ (Portuguese Maria do Socorro, Spanish María del Socorro).

Surname with a probable prothetic S, which in epigraphic ancient documents and inscriptions represented "sacerdote" or "priest" originally from Arabia. Name of village in Villagrán, Guanajuato in Mexico.It is a Castilian surname from Soria, which spread to Chile from the Order of Santiago starting in 1628.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: probably a habitational name from Montesinos in Murcia province or Los Montesinos in Badajoz or Alacant.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: habitational name from Villasana de Mena, a place in Burgos province, named from villa ‘(outlying) farm’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + possibly sano ‘healthy’.

Portuguese: patronymic from Estévão, Portuguese vernacular form of Latin Stephanus (see Steven).

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

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

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

religious byname from Portuguese vieria ‘scallop’ (Late Latin veneria, a derivative of the name of Venus; the goddess was often depicted riding on a scallop). The scallop was a symbol of the pilgrim who had been to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela. habitational name from any of numerous minor places called Vieiria.

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

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

This surname means 'wide' in Basque.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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

Spanish: habitational name from one of the places in A Coruña or Gran Canaria called Roque or from El Roque in Tenerife. Catalan (Roqué): from a variant of Roquer, habitational name from any of the places in Catalonia named Roquer or El Roquer, from a derivative of Catalan roca ‘rock’. Possibly an altered spelling of French Rocque, a Picard and southern form of Roche.

Spanish: habitational name from Cartaya in Seville province.

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

Spanish: habitational name from Camero (Camero Viejo, Camero Nuevo), a mountainous area in the Rioja region.

Jewish: from Hebrew kohen ‘priest’. Priests are traditionally regarded as members of a hereditary caste descended from Aaron, brother of Moses. See also Kaplan.

English: variant of Rye 1 and 2. reduced form of Scottish McRea.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Italian (chiefly Piedmont): from a personal name of Germanic origin, of which the medieval Latinate forms were O(t)bertus, Ubertus.

Hispanic: unexplained.

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

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

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

From Anton, a vernacular form of Latin Antonius (see Anthony) in Spanish (Antón), German, Swedish, Czech (Anton or Anton, short forms of Antonín), and several other languages.

Spanish (Canary Islands): probably a variant of Portuguese Meireles, which is of uncertain derivation.

Spanish and Portuguese: from the personal name Justo, Latin Justus, meaning ‘honorable’, ‘upright’ (see Just).

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Portuguese: from the medieval personal name Gomes, probably Visigothic in origin, from guma ‘man’. This name is also common on the west coast of India, where it was taken by Portuguese colonists.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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’.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Asturian-Leonese and Galician: habitational name from any of the places, mostly in Asturies, called Pereda, from pereda ‘pear tree orchard’.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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 a dialect or old form of Lancia. Italian: from a short form of a personal name formed with the suffix -lanza or -lancia, as for example Francalanza and Giallanza. Spanish: from lanza ‘lance’, either a nickname for a soldier (lancer) or occupational name for a lance maker.

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

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

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Mórdha (see Moore). English (of Norman origin): from the Old French personal name Mory, a short form of Amaury (see Emery).

Catalan: metonymic occupational name for a maker of chains or perhaps for a jailer, from Catalan and Spanish cadena ‘chain’ (Latin catena). This form (singular) is rare as a surname in Castile, but frequent in Catalonia; the plural (Cadenas) occurs in both regions but is more frequent in the former.

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

Spanish: from peinado ‘combed’ (past participle of peinar ‘to comb’), hence a nickname for a well-groomed person or for someone with naturally smooth rather than curly hair.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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

Basque: habitational name from Berrio in Biscay province, Basque Country, or a topographic name, probably from Basque berri ‘new’.

Portuguese and Spanish (Carías): unexplained; probably a topographic name from the plural of a shortened form of Portuguese alcaria (Spanish alquería) ‘little village’ or ‘shed’ or denoting a kind of violet, of Arabic origin.

Basque: variant spelling of Ibarra.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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 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’.

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

Portuguese and Galician: topographic name for someone who lived near a fig tree from figueira ‘fig tree’ (from Latin ficaria), or a habitational name from a place named with this word.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish or Aragonese: of uncertain origin; perhaps connected with the place name Esquedas, found in Uesca, Aragon.

German: variant spelling of Lantz.

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: variant of the habitational name Zambrano.

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

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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).

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: nickname for a left-handed man, from Spanish izquierdo ‘left’ (a word of pre-Roman origin, akin to Basque ezker).

Spanish (of Basque origin): Castilianized form of Okendo, a habitational name from Okendo in Arava province, Basque Country.

Jewish, Welsh, Scottish, English, French, Portuguese, German, Czech, Slovak (Dávid) and Slovenian: from the Hebrew personal name David ‘beloved’, which has been perennially popular among Jews, in honor of the Biblical king of this name, the greatest of the early kings of Israel. His prominence, and the vivid narrative of his life contained in the First Book of Samuel, led to adoption of the name in various parts of Europe, notably Britain, among Christians in the Middle Ages. The popularity of this as a personal name was increased in Britain, firstly by virtue of its being the name of the patron saint of Wales (about whom very little is known: he was probably a 6th-century monk and bishop) and secondly because it was borne by two kings of Scotland (David I, reigning 1124–53, and David II, 1329–71). Its popularity in Russia is largely due to the fact that this was the ecclesiastical name adopted by St. Gleb (died 1015), one of two sons of Prince Vladimir of Kiev who were martyred for their Christian zeal.

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.

Spanish: habitational name from Moros in Zaragoza province, so named from the plural of moro ‘Moor’, i.e. ‘the place where the Moors live’. Greek: ethnic name for a Moor, from Greek Moros ‘Moor’.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish and Portuguese (common in Mexico): probably from a reduced and altered form of the personal name Elisardo.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish: habitational name from one of various places called Villafranca, from Late Latin villa ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + franca ‘free’ (see Frank 2). The settlements were so named because they were exempt from certain feudal taxes or obligations, normally as a reward for some special service.

Spanish: habitational name from Obando in Extremadura province.

Spanish: variant of Luján (see Lujan).

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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

Of undetermined geographic origin, name derives from word "borra" meaning "cordero," or an infant lamb, particularly a male lamb which is not yet mature.Galician name. One branch in Castile and Estremadura. Another branch in Jerez de los Caballeros with the Reconquest.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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

Spanish, Portuguese, Galician: from pico ‘beak’ or ‘(mountain) peak’; perhaps a nickname for someone who had a prominent pointed nose, a topographic name for someone who lived by a peak, or a habitational name from a place named with this word (Pico in Galicia, El Pico in Asturies). Catalan (Picó): probably a nickname from Catalan picó ‘having a thick upper lip’. Italian: from pico ‘woodpecker’ or southern dialect picu ‘(pick)axe’.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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).

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.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Asturian-Leonese and Spanish (Argüelles): habitational name from any of various places called Argüelles, mainly the one in Asturies.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Spanish (Salmerón): habitational name from Salmerón in Guadalajara province, possibly also the one in Murcia.

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 (of Basque origin): patronymic from the personal name Adame.

Spanish (Adán): from the personal name Adán, Spanish form of Adam. Scottish: probably a variant of Adam. Hungarian (Ádán): variant of Ádám, from the personal name Ádám, Hungarian form of Adam.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Portuguese and Spanish (Pestaña): from Portuguese pestana, Spanish pestaña ‘eyelash’, also in the Middle Ages ‘eyebrow’, hence a nickname for someone who had long eyelashes or bushy eyebrows.

Asturian-Leonese (Avilés): habitational name from Avilés, a place in Asturies on the coast west of Xixón (Gijón in Spanish). The place name is derived either from a pre-Roman cognomen, Abilus, or from the Latin name Abilius, from the place name formed with (Villa) Abilius + the suffix -ensis. Spanish: possibly also habitational name for someone from Ávila (see Avila).

Spanish (Bárcena(s)): habitational name from any of various places throughout Spain named Barcenas, from an unattested pre-Roman topographical element bargina, denoting an area of cultivated land.

Spanish and Asturian-Leonese: from madera ‘wood’, ‘timber’ (from Late Latin materia), probably applied as a topographic name or a habitational name from a place named with this word, as for example La Madera in Asturies. Czech (Madera): ethnic name from an old word for a Hungarian (see Magyar).

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: from the Germanic personal name Giraldo, equivalent to Gerald.

Portuguese: patronymic from the personal name Fernando. This is one of the most common surnames in Portugal. This surname is also common in Goa and elsewhere on the west coast of India, having been taken there by Portuguese colonists.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

Basque: habitational name from any of several places in the Basque provinces named Ugarte. The first element of place name, ug-, means ‘river’, ‘water’.

Asturian-Leonese and Galician: habitational name from any of various places in Asturies and Galicia named with granda ‘rocky plain’, ‘scrub-covered upland with poor soil’ (from pre-Roman gándara).

Spanish: habitational name from places called Tamayo in the provinces of Burgos and Albacete.

Variant of Portuguese Esteves.

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.

Galician: habitational name from a place called Lista in La Coruña province. Southern Italian: from a short form of Evangelista.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

This surname means 'king of lizards'.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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

Spanish: habitational name from a place named Curiel, in Valladolid province.

Basque: topographic or habitational name, from artza ‘abundance of stones’ (from (h)arri ‘stone’) + -ola ‘place’, ‘hut’, ‘cabin’.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

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

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

The meaning of this surname is not listed.

The meaning of this surname is not listed.