Urena (last name)

Ureña is a surname of Spanish origin whose roots are in the current municipality of Urueña, in the province of Valladolid (Spain).

In 1464, King Juan II of Castile donated the town to Don Pedro Girón, butler and favorite of the then prince and future king Enrique IV. Pedro Girón was the Master of the Order of Calatrava, and throughout his life he led the conquest of the Muslims of many towns, among which Osuna, in the current province of Seville, stands out. His (illegitimate, but recognized) son Alfonso Téllez-Girón de las Casas was named I Count of Ureña in 1462 by Enrique IV.

The successive Counts of Ureña continued participating in the wars of conquest of current Andalusia. In 1492, Juan Téllez Girón, II Count of Ureña, entered Granada together with the Catholic Monarchs. In 1562, the V Count of Ureña was named Duke of Osuna by Philip II of Spain. From then on, the title of Count of Ureña was linked to that of Duke of Osuna.

In 1541 there was a high school graduate named Francisco de Ureña studying medicine at the University of Granada, according to the book by María del Carmen Calero Palacios and others on the history of said University.

Gaspar de Molina y Saldívar (*1741 – †1806), was an architect, painter and poet from Cádiz, who held the title of Marquis of Ureña. This title survives until the XX century, in which it was held by D. Joaquín de Silos Millán, to whom it was granted in 1995 (B.O.E., RD. 919/1995).

The surname spread to America since the XVI century. Diego de Ureña embarked for Santo Domingo on April 15, 1534, according to the Catalog of Passengers to the Indies of the General Archive of the Indies. Don Domingo Gómez de Ureña, who was born in Lepe (province of Huelva, Andalusia, Spain) in 1575, was sheriff of Santa Fe de Antioquia (Colombia), having arrived in that city in 1598.

Statistics

In Spain, according to the National Institute of Statistics website, there are 6,791 people with Ureña as their first surname, 6,472 as their second surname, and 80 with both (consultation carried out on June 17, 2018).

In Costa Rica, according to the website of the Supreme Election Tribunal, there are 19,322 on the electoral roll with Ureña in some surname (data from the February 2018 elections).

In the US, according to the Decennial Census website, there are 11,066 people registered with the last name URENA (2010 census data)