If you have a surname of those considered “common” such as “García” or “Martínez”, you may have come across people throughout your life who shared your first or second surname or even both, but how many people? Their last name is really like you in Spain? Thanks to the INE we can know it but also know the most popular surnames in our country, as well as the names.
How many people have their last names like you in Spain?
Thanks to our surnames we can identify ourselves . They are the inheritance in our family and they are necessary to carry out all kinds of procedures regardless of that identity that they give us along with the name that our parents choose for us. On the other hand, some surnames are quite old and refer for example to professions , such as Zapatero or Herrero or also, they can be place names of the places where our ancestors lived (Toledo, Villar) or refer to their physical characteristics (Moreno, Calvo).
On the other hand, in Spain it is quite common to find surnames that end in “ez”, “iz” or “oz” and which means “son of” , so if someone has a surname for example “Benítez”, “Jiménez” , (or “Ruiz” or “Muñoz”) implies that in their past or their origins they were the children of someone named Benito (or Benita) or Jimeno (or Jimena).
In short, surnames are our clear hallmark but they are also very widespread, which is why it is possible to find «Fernandez» throughout Spain, while others are more typical of a region or community, in the case of Basque surnames or the Catalans.
And to find out how many people have a surname like each one of us, it is enough to inquire at the INE, which is the National Institute of Statistics. In fact, each year they prepare a list or ranking with the most popular names and surnames, but they also have a search engine, in which when entering our name we can see how many people are called the same. The same can be done with the surname and the truth is that more than one person has been surprised to find that their surnames were more common than they thought. To test that search engine you just have to click here.
What is the most common surname in Spain?
According to the figures for 2020 from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), in Spain, the most common surname of all is García with 1,462,696 people registered in the last register , that is, 30.8 people per 1,000 inhabitants. Following García these are the other most common surnames currently in our country.
- Rodríguez (930.659).
- González (927,819).
- Fernandez (910,545).
- Lopez (871,745).
- Martinez (833,665).
- Sánchez (818,322).
- Pérez (779,666).
- Gomez (492,977).
- Martin (485,649).
