Annex: Most common surnames in Spain and Latin America

This annex contains various lists of the most common surnames in Hispanic countries, the vast majority of which are of Spanish origin. These patterns may vary from year to year in each country. The best source of information for the frequency of surnames is the data available in the census systems and the institutes of demographic statistics of each nation.^{[citation required]}

Argentina

2014

The most popular surnames in Argentina are of Spanish origin.

2005 List:

Most common surnames by region

According to the data from the source, the Cuyo region is made up of the provinces of Mendoza, San Juan and San Luis; the region of Gran Chaco, by the provinces of Chaco, Formosa and Santiago del Estero; Mesopotamia, by the provinces of Corrientes, Entre Ríos and Misiones; the Northwest by those of Catamarca, Jujuy, La Rioja, Salta and Tucumán; the Pampa by the city of Buenos Aires and the provinces of Buenos Aires, Córdoba, La Pampa and Santa Fe; and Patagonia by the provinces of Chubut, Neuquén, Río Negro, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego.

Chile

In 2008, the Chilean Civil Registry and Identification Service does not mention whether the information provided includes both surnames or only the first (it is likely that it is both). Nor is it made explicit if Chileans living abroad are added, which are more than 800,000.

Last names most registered by commune

According to the Civil Registry, during the year 2017, the three surnames that registered the most were González, Muñoz and Rojas, in that order. However, surnames are not evenly distributed throughout the national territory and, if one looks by geographical area, important differences can be found. For example, González is the surname that predominates in more communes of the country, especially in the central zone, while in the extreme north there are a greater number of registered surnames Mamani, as well as the Rojas, which stand out from Antofagasta to La Serena. In certain communes in the eastern sector of Santiago, such as Las Condes, Vitacura and Providencia, trends point to a predominance of surnames linked to the old Castilian-Basque aristocracy, such as Larraín (of the Larraín Family), Errázuriz (of the Errázuriz Family) and Undurraga.

Columbia

The most common surnames in Colombia in 2010 are:

#	Surname	Persons
1	Rodríguez	707.789
2	Gómez	537.843
3	González	531.484
4	Martínez	530.721
5	García	524.835
6	López	509.880
7	Hernández	454.471
8	Sánchez	449.750
9	Ramírez	427.404
10	Pérez	418.660
11	Díaz	388.419
12	Muñoz	293.759
13	Reds	286.038
14	Moreno	265.374
15	Jiménez	261.391

Costa Rica

2015

The most common surnames in Costa Rica are Rodríguez, Vargas, Jiménez, Mora and Rojas, all of the above being of Spanish origin. Italian surnames appear beyond position 50 (Rivera*, Granados *, Sandí, Loría, Valerio, Román) and Portuguese (Sequeira, Pereira).

A characteristic of Costa Rican demography is the abundant presence of people of a highly varied racial and cultural origin, with Hispanic-Costa Ricans, Italian-Costa Ricans and Afro-Costa Ricans standing out as the most important ethnic groups in the country. However, surnames of English (Thompson), German (Steinvorth), Polish (Nowicka), French (Baudrit), Swedish (Ericsson), Lebanese (Beirute) and Chinese (Wang) origin are frequent; but they appear to have a lower incidence as they have much greater variability than Iberian surnames, as they are Spanishized after their registration in the Civil Registry or after decades of use.

#	Surname
1	Rodríguez
2	Vargas
3	Jiménez
4	Mora
5	Reds
6	González
7	Sánchez
8	Ramírez
9	Hernández
10	Castro

*The surnames Rivera and Granados also have their variants of Spanish origin. But, at least in Costa Rica, there are people who carry the first with their Italian origin and people who have the Spanish name of the Italic surname "from Granada".

2007

For its part, according to a Costa Rican newspaper, during 2007 the 10 most common surnames are:

#	Surname
1	Reyes
2	Mora
3	Jiménez
4	González
5	Hernández
6	Morales
7	Sánchez
8	Ramírez
9	Pérez
10	Calderón

El Salvador

Most common surnames in El Salvador in 2005.

# Surname	Number of persons	% of the population
1 Hernández	500,000	8.17%
2 Martínez	495,000	8.08%
3 López	390.000	6.37%
4 García	250,000	4.08%
5 Rodríguez	200,000	3.27%
6 Flowers	195,000	3.18%
7 Perez	190.000	3.1 per cent
8 Ramírez	150,000	2.45%
9 González	148,000	2.42%
10 Rivera	125,000	2.04%
11 Vasquez	124,000	2.03%
12 Cross	120.000	1.96%
13 Mejía	100,000	1.63%
14 Rivas	60,000	0.98 per cent
15 Sánchez	50,000	0.82%
16 Kings	45,000	0.73%
17 Díaz	44,000	0.72%
18 Ramos	40.000	0.65%
19 Gómez	40.000	0.65%
20 D'aubuisson	30,000	0.49%
21 Escobar	30,000	0.49%
22 Orellana	25,000	0.41%
23 Romero	20.000	0.333%
24 Aguilar	20.000	0.333%
25 Alvarado	10,000	0.16%
Total population (2007)	6 123 000	100.00

Ecuador

In Ecuador the most common surnames are:

1. Zambrano
2. Sánchez
3. Torres
4. Rodríguez
5. López
6. Cedeño
7. Zabala
8. Jiménez
9. García
10. Romero
11. Castle
12. González
13. Vera
14. Flowers
15. Espinosa
16. Castro
17. Morales
18. Pérez
19. Bermúdez
20. León
21. Jaramillo
22. Mendoza
23. Villavicencio

Spain

Map of Spain showing the most common last name in each province.

Map of Spain with the percentage of population born in each province that corresponds to the 10 most common surnames in the province. Source: INE 2006.

According to INE (Spain), the following surnames are the most common in Spain (counting both the 1st and 2nd surnames):

Honduras

In Honduras the most common surnames in 2015 are:

#	Surname	Persons
1	Hernández	270.545
2	López	245,736
3	Martínez	234,466
4	Rodríguez	206,391
5	García	183,562
6	Mejía	167.541
7	Cruz	132.386
8	Flowers	132.327
9	Sánchez	123.918
10	Reyes	122.471

Mexico

However, by state the most common are: Hernández (14), García (7), López (5), Martínez (2), Rodríguez (2), González (1) and Chan (1).

Paraguayan

The list of the most common surnames in Paraguay shows the clear influence of Spanish Castile in Paraguayan society.

These amounts are the result of the sum of appearances in the first surname and in the second surname, so it may not indicate that there are per number of people with that surname, since in the event that it is a person with both equal surnames the count would give two; such as the case of the González González family.

Peru

Surnames in Peru are mostly of Inca and Spanish descent, the dominant surnames are Quechua surnames (Quispe, Huamán) in Lima (due to immigration from within the country), Aymara (Mamani) in Arequipa (internal immigration) and in Puno, and of Amazonian origin (Sinarahua, Pizango) in Loreto, in some rural areas of the southern sierra, although they also have a presence in urban areas, due to the phenomenon of country-city emigration that occurred in the 20th century.

The surnames that stand out in Peru are surnames of Spanish origin, just like the rest of Latin America. Not precisely because of a significant immigration of Spaniards like other countries in the region, but rather because it is a former Spanish colony. The surname Flores, Sánchez and Garcías stands out

Uruguay

The most common surnames in Uruguay in 2014 come from the Iberian Peninsula:

#	1.♪ sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur sur	Persons	Frec.
1	Rodríguez	106 323	1:32
2	González	74 805	1:46
3	Martínez	53 863	1:64
4	Fernández	46 133	1:74
5	Pérez	42 997	1:80
6	García	40 404	1:85
7	Silva	34 662	1:99
8	López	31 793	1:108
9	Pereira	27 178	1:126
10	Sosa	25 899	1:132

Venezuela

In Venezuela, the most common surnames according to data from the 2012 Electoral Registry:

1. González
2. Rodríguez
3. Pérez
4. Hernández
5. García
6. Martínez
7. Sánchez
8. López
9. Díaz
10. Ferreira
11. Ramírez
12. Castle
13. Gómez
14. Romero
15. Oliveira
16. Fernández
17. Mendoza
18. Rossi
19. Silva
20. Gutiérrez
21. Rizzo
22. Davis

Sources and references

References