South American names include those from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Submitted names are contributed by users of this website. The accuracy of these name definitions cannot be guaranteed.
LinharesPortuguese Portuguese: habitational name from any of several places called Linhares, for example in Braganca, Guarda, and Vila Real, from the plural of linhar ‘flax field’ (Latin linare, a derivative of linum ‘flax’).
LinzmeyerGerman, Portuguese (Brazilian) Means "bailiff of Linz, Austria" in German, derived from Proto-Celtic *lentos (“bend”) and Middle High German meier meaning "bailiff, administrator", derived from Latin maior meaning "greater".... [more]
LourinhoPortuguese Possibly from Lourinhã, a portuguese city to the northwest of Lisbon who possibly originated in the Roman period, when a villa named "Laurinana" existed in the area. Lourinho is a diminutive form of "louro", deriving from Latin laurus, "laurel".
LousadaPortuguese Name given from the village of Lousada, in Northern Portugal.
LovatoSpanish, Italian Northern Italian from the Late Latin personal name Lupatus, derivative of Latin lupus "wolf". This is one of several medieval personal names which became popular under the influence of Germanic compound personal names formed with wolf-.
LuceroEnglish, Spanish The surname "Lucero" was derived from English conquerers who came from England, most likely someone who worked for a king or queen. The term Lucero refers to a "star" or "light carrier" when the English traveled to Spain, the Spanish people gave them the name "Lucero" but earlier was spelled with an "s or Lusero"... [more]
LucíaSpanish, Italian From the feminine personal name Lucia, feminine derivative of Latin lux meaning "light".
LugoSpanish 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.
LujánSpanish This is the second last name of Spanish footballer/soccer player Andrés Iniesta.
LujanoSpanish Spanish: variant of Luján ( see Lujan ).
MacedoPortuguese, Spanish (Latin American) Referred to a person who worked or lived at an apple orchard. It is derived from Vulgar Latin mattianēta meaning "place with apple trees."
MadeirasPortuguese Came from the Portuguese Madeira word "wood" or "timber". perhaps the portuguese version of the surname Woods or someone who's from the Portuguese island Madeira
MaderaSpanish describing someone who lived or worked in a forest. the word Madera means "wood" in Spanish. Spanish meaning of surname Wood
MadrigalSpanish "Madrigal" comes from from the Venetian madregal "simple, ingenuous," from Late Latin matricalis "invented, original," literally "of or from the womb," from matrix (gen. matricis) "womb."
MairenaSpanish This indicates familial origin within either of 3 Andalusian localities: Mairena, Municipality of Nevada, Mairena del Alcor, or Mairena del Aljarafe.
MantillaSpanish 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.
ManuelCatalan, Spanish Possibly also a habitational name from Manuel in Valencia province.
MaquedaSpanish This indicates familial origin within either of 2 eponymous localities: the Manchego municipality or the neighborhood of the Andalusian municipality of Málaga.
MarchantFrench, English, Spanish Variant of Marchand, from French marchand meaning "merchant, mercantile". Though it is of French origin, it was transferred into the Spanish-speaking world, especially Chile, by French invasion of the Iberian Peninsula.
MarchenaSpanish This indicates familial origin within either of 4 Andalusian localities or 1 Murcian locality.
MauleonSpanish (Archaic) All I know is that there is a place in spain "Basque Country" that their town, apartments, holtes are named Mauleon. The language spoken is Basque a form of "Spanish and French"
MedranoSpanish This indicates familial origin within the eponymous Riojan municipality.
MejiaSpanish Spanish (Mejía): probably from a religious byname (possibly under Jewish influence), from a vernacular form of Latin, Greek Messias ‘Messiah’, from Hebrew māšīaḥ ‘anointed’.
MeleroSpanish Occupational name for a collector or seller of honey, melero (Late Latin mellarius, an agent derivative of mel, genitive mellis, ‘honey’).
MelgarSpanish Topographical name for someone who lived by a field of lucerne, Spanish melgar (a collective derivative of mielga 'lucerne', Late Latin melica, for classical Latin Medica (herba) 'plant' from Media).
MelgosaSpanish This indicates familial origin within either of 2 Castilian municipalities, Melgosa de Burgos or Melgosa de Villadiego. It could also indicate familial origin within the Manchego municipality La Melgosa.
MelilloSpanish, Italian describing someone who worked on an apple orchard,harvesting and selling apples from the italian mela
MercadoSpanish Topographic name for someone living by a market or metonymic occupational name for a market trader, from Spanish mercado meaning "market".
MerinoSpanish "Merino" where a kind of medieval judges in the kingdoms of Castille and Navarre (nowadays Spain). Besides solving controversies among the people, could have some role in the organization of their territories.... [more]
MesaSpanish Habitational name for someone from any of the various locations in Spain called Mesa meaning "table" or "mesa" in Spanish (referring to a flat area of land).
MirandaSpanish, Portuguese, Jewish 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".
MoclinSpanish A town positioned outside of Granada and Toledo Spain, its current occupants number in the thousands. But, 700’s this town was positioned in a mist of sprawling Moorish control. And, for the next 800 years, it was the epic center of Europe’s culture and medicine... [more]
MontemayorSpanish Habitational name from any of several places called Montemayor, from monte meaning "mountain" + mayor meaning "main", "larger", "greater", in particular in the provinces of Cordova, Salamanca, and Valladolid.
MontenegroSpanish, Portuguese Habitational name for someone originally from any of the various locations in Spain and Portugal named Montenegro, from Spanish and Portuguese monte meaning "mountain, hill" and negro meaning "black".
MoreiraPortuguese, Galician Habitational name from any of the numerous places in Portugal and Galicia called Moreira, from moreira meaning "mulberry tree".
MorosSpanish Habitational name from Moros in Zaragoza province, so named from the plural of moro ‘Moor’, i.e. ‘the place where the Moors live’.
MotaSpanish, Portuguese Topographic name for someone who lived by a fortified stronghold.
MouraPortuguese Derived from the Portuguese word "Mouro", which refers to an individual from the Moor people. This is the feminine form of the word, often used in legends of enchanted moor women, which very common in Portugal... [more]
MoyaSpanish Habitational name from any of various locations called Moya.
MoyanoSpanish Habitational name for someone from Moya, from an adjectival form of the place name.
NaranjoSpanish Topographic name for someone who lived by an orange grove, from Spanish naranjo ‘orange tree’ (from naranja ‘orange’, Arabic nāránjya), or a habitational name from a place named Naranjo in A Coruña and Códoba provinces... [more]
NascimentoPortuguese (Brazilian) Means "birth, nativity" in Portuguese, from Late Latin nascimentum, a derivative of Latin nasci "to be born". This was originally a religious byname. It was also an epithet of the Virgin Mary (Maria do Nascimento), and was used as a given name for children born on Christmas.
NatalPortuguese, Spanish From the personal name Natal (from Latin Natalis), bestowed on someone born at Christmas or with reference to the Marian epithet María del Natal.
NatividadSpanish From the personal name Natividad "nativity, Christmas", from Latin nativitas "birth", genitive nativitatis, usually bestowed with reference to the Marian epithet María de la Natividad... [more]
NavidadSpanish Derived from the personal name Noel. It means "Christmas" in Spanish.
NegroItalian, Spanish, Portuguese, Jewish Nickname or ethnic name from negro "black" (Latin niger), denoting someone with dark hair or a dark complexion.
NegroItalian, Spanish, Galician, Portuguese, Jewish Nickname or ethnic name from negro "black" (continuation of Latin niger), denoting someone with dark hair, dark eyes, a dark complexion, someone who wore dark clothes, someone who worked a job in the night, or was otherwise associated with the night.
NegronSpanish, Italian This surname is a most likely variant of the word and name Negro.
NoronhaPortuguese Derived from Noreña, the name of a village in Asturias, northern Spain.
NovoGalician, Portuguese Nickname from Portuguese and Galician novo ‘new’, ‘young’ (Latin novus). The word was also occasionally used in the Middle Ages as a personal name, particularly for a child born after the death of a sibling, and this may also be a source of the surname.
ObregónSpanish Spanish habitational name from Obregón in Santander province.
OcampoSpanish, Galician From the Galician toponym O Campo meaning "the field", also used as a habitational name from a town of the same name in Lugo, Galicia.
OcónSpanish This indicates familial origin within either the eponymous Riojan municipality or the Ocón de Villafranca neighborhood of the Castilian municipality of Villafranca Montes de Oca.
OlivaItalian, Spanish Of uncertain origin: derived either from a nickname to those who picked, worked with or sold olives, or from the given name Oliva.
OlivaresSpanish Nabitational name from any of several places named Olivares, from the plural of Spanish olivar 'olive grove'.
OronaSpanish Spanish: habitational name from a town of this name in Burgos province.
OroscoSpanish, Basque Variant of Orozco. Means "place of the holly trees" from oros meaning "holly tree" and the suffix -ko suggesting place. Also believed to have been derived from Latin orosius meaning "the son of bringer of wisdom".
OrozcoSpanish, Basque Comes from the Bilbao province in the Basque region of Spain.
PacanaSpanish From pacana meaning "pecan", "pecan tree", a word of Algonquin origin. This surname is also found in the Philippines.
PachecoSpanish, Portuguese From the name of Vivio Pacieco, a 1st-century BC Roman general sent by Julius Caesar to fight in the Iberian peninsula.
PagánSpanish Castilianized spelling of Catalan Pagà, from the Late Latin personal name Paganus, which originally meant "dweller in an outlying village" (see Paine).
PalacioSpanish Palacio is derived from the Spanish word "palaciao," meaning a "palace," and as a surname, was no doubt taken on by someone who lived near a palace or mansion, or perhaps by someone who worked there.
PalmaSpanish, Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, Italian Spanish, Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, and southern Italian: habitational name from any of various places named or named with Palma, from Latin palma ‘palm’. ... [more]