This article contains lists of the most common surnames in most of the countries of South America, including two transcontinental countries. Countries are arranged in alphabetical order.
Argentina Most surnames are of Spanish and Italian origin.
RankSurnamePop.Pop. % 1 González 568,240 1.472% 2 Rodríguez 483,212 1.252% 3 Fernández 426,253 1.104% 4 García 411,462 1.066% 5 López 393,704 1.030% 6 Martínez 346,271 0.897% 7 Pérez 336,094 0.870% 8 Álvarez 294,527 0.763% 9 Gómez 290,821 0.753% 10 Sánchez 271,351 0.703% 11 Díaz 256,397 0.664% 12 Vásquez 187,974 0.487% 13 Castro 173,055 0.448% 14 Romero 166,497 0.431% 15 Suárez 160,483 0.415% 16 Blanco 154,248 0.399% 17 Ruiz 140,829 0.364% 18 Alonso 135,893 0.352% 19 Torres 133,599 0.346% 20 Domínguez 132,625 0.343% 21 Gutiérrez 130,607 0.338% 22 Sosa 129,372 0.335% 23 Iglesias 126,822 0.328% 24 Giménez 125,009 0.323% 25 Ramírez 124,550 0.322% 26 Martín 123,938 0.321% 27 Varela 119,674 0.310% 28 Ramos 118,825 0.307% 29 Núñez 118,106 0.306% 30 Rossi 116,775 0.302% 31 Silva 107,835 0.279% 32 Méndez 104,668 0.271% 33 Hernández 104,581 0.270% 34 Flores 100,092 0.261% 35 Pereyra 99,884 0.258% 36 Ferrari 98,761 0.255% 37 Ortiz 96,761 0.250% 38 Medina 96,228 0.249% 39 Benítez 95,628 0.247% 40 Herrera 94,781 0.245% 41 Arias 94,537 0.245% 42 Acosta 92,707 0.240% 43 Moreno 92,127 0.238% 44 Aguirre 91,365 0.236% 45 Otero 89,583 0.232% 46 Cabrera 88,398 0.229% 47 Rey 88,394 0.229% 48 Rojas 81,343 0.210% 49 Vidal 80,233 0.207% 50 Molina 80,050 0.207% 51 Russo 79,882 0.206% 52 Paz 75,365 0.195% 53 Vega 74,107 0.192% 54 Costa 73,932 0.191% 55 Bruno 73,907 0.191% 56 Romano 73,458 0.190% 57 Morales 71,587 0.185% 58 Ríos 71,534 0.185% 59 Miranda 70,713 0.183% 60 Muñoz 70,092 0.181% 61 Franco 70,055 0.181% 62 Castillo 69,720 0.180% 63 Campos 69,447 0.179% 64 Bianchi 68,510 0.177% 65 Luna 66,763 0.172% 66 Correa 66,535 0.172% 67 Ferreyra 66,461 0.172% 68 Navarro 66,457 0.172% 69 Quiroga 66,138 0.171% 70 Colombo 65,375 0.169% 71 Cohen 63,575 0.164% 72 Pereyra 63,367 0.163% 73 Vera 63,226 0.163% 74 Lorenzo 63,157 0.163% 75 Gil 62,727 0.162% 76 Santos 60,580 0.156% 77 Delgado 59,333 0.154% 78 Godoy 58,956 0.152% 79 Rivas 58,811 0.151% 80 Rivero 58,604 0.151% 81 Gallo 57,990 0.149% 82 Peralta 57,192 0.148% 83 Soto 55,633 0.144% 84 Figueroa 55,515 0.143% 85 Juárez 55,310 0.143% 86 Marino 54,806 0.142% 87 Ponce 54,009 0.139% 88 Calvo 52,282 0.135% 89 Ibáñez 51,972 0.134% 90 Cáceres 51,493 0.133% 91 Carrizo 50,657 0.131% 92 Vargas 50,613 0.131% 93 Mendoza 50,588 0.131% 94 Aguilar 49,717 0.128% 95 Ledesma 49,645 0.128% 96 Guzmán 49,543 0.128% 97 Soria 49,291 0.127% 98 Villalba 48,602 0.125% 99 Prieto 48,355 0.125% 100 Maldonado 47,344 0.122% Top 100 11,632,320 30.093% Total pop. (2005 est.) 38,592.150 100.000%
Brazil Most of the surnames of the Brazilian population have a Portuguese origin, due to Portuguese colonization in the country (it is estimated that 80% of the Brazilian population has at least one Portuguese ancestor), while other South American countries were largely colonized by the Spanish. However, due to historical immigration, there are also surnames of African, Arabic, German, Italian and Japanese origin. 2010 data:
Rank Surname Share of 2010 Brazilian population Pop. Origin 1 Silva 10.95% 20,882,120 Portuguese 2 Santos 7.04% 13,433,982 Portuguese 3 Oliveira 5.14% 9,810,832 Portuguese 4 Sousa 3.26% 6,209,493 Portuguese 5 Rodrigues 3.09% 5,892,937 Portuguese 6 Ferreira 2.63% 5,007,393 Portuguese 7 Alves 2.43% 4,630,387 Portuguese 8 Pereira 2.41% 4,590,010 Portuguese 9 Lima 2.36% 4,510,002 Portuguese 10 Gomes 2.30% 4,393,398 Portuguese 11 Costa 2.05% 3,905,800 Portuguese 12 Ribeiro 2.02% 3,848,000 Portuguese 13 Martins 1.91% 3,650,200 Portuguese 14 Carvalho 1.74% 3,320,780 Portuguese 15 Almeida 1.68% 3,209,000 Portuguese 16 Lopes 1.59% 3,040,300 Portuguese 17 Soares 1.58% 3,010,000 Portuguese 18 Fernandes 1.55% 2,960,500 Portuguese 19 Vieira 1.48% 2,830,120 Portuguese 20 Barbosa 1.40% 2,673,000 Portuguese 21 Rocha 1.33% 2,540,600 Portuguese 22 Dias 1.31% 2,505,070 Portuguese 23 Nascimento 1.29% 2,467,000 Portuguese 24 Andrade 1.26% 2,408,500 Portuguese 25 Moreira 1.25% 2,379,700 Portuguese 26 Nunes 1.24% 2,370,000 Portuguese 27 Marques 1.24% 2,366,300 Portuguese 28 Machado 1.24% 2,362,000 Portuguese 29 Mendes 1.23% 2,354,500 Portuguese 30 Freitas 1.23% 2,348,000 Portuguese Top 30 67.46% 128,695,910 —
Chile All surnames are Spanish in origin, with quite a few of them being Basque (e.g. Araya or Zúñiga).
# Either 1st or2nd surname Persons 1 González 741,388 2 Muñoz 578,673 3 Rojas 413,897 4 Díaz 410,802 5 Pérez 326,867 6 Soto 298,062 7 Contreras 276,887 8 Silva 259,950 9 Martínez 252,966 10 Sepúlveda 251,078 11 Morales 248,448 12 Rodríguez 243,695 13 López 240,181 14 Fuentes 228,609 15 Hernández 226,848 16 Torres 226,480 17 Araya 224,232 18 Flores 221,231 19 Espinoza 219,375 20 Valenzuela 215,025 21 Castillo 213,321 22 Ramírez 211,191 23 Reyes 208,752 24 Gutiérrez 201,734 25 Castro 199,508 26 Vargas 198,471 27 Álvarez 193,002 28 Vásquez 189,946 29 Tapia 179,905 30 Fernández 179,246 31 Sánchez 178,615 32 Carrasco 172,877 33 Gómez 172,758 34 Cortés 171,370 35 Herrera 170,309 36 Núñez 165,806 37 Jara 161,085 38 Vergara 155,118 39 Rivera 147,835 40 Figueroa 145,460 41 Riquelme 143,590 42 García 142,002 43 Miranda 138,939 44 Bravo 138,392 45 Vera 137,646 46 Molina 131,094 47 Vega 128,132 48 Campos 126,260 49 Sandoval 125,640 50 Orellana 123,619 51 Zúñiga 120,757 52 Olivares 120,074 53 Alarcón 118,019 54 Gallardo 117,752 55 Ortiz 117,228 56 Garrido 115,109 57 Salazar 113,881 58 Guzmán 109,922 59 Henríquez 109,364 60 Saavedra 108,702 61 Navarro 107,897 62 Aguilera 107,864 63 Parra 106,100 64 Romero 105,597 65 Aravena 105,441 66 Pizarro 105,352 67 Godoy 103,887 68 Peña 103,377 69 Cáceres 102,830 70 Leiva 99,890 71 Escobar 97,979 72 Yáñez 96,589 73 Valdés 96,528 74 Vidal 96,037 75 Salinas 94,110 76 Cárdenas 93,925 77 Jiménez 92,032 78 Ruiz 91,539 79 Lagos 91,024 80 Maldonado 89,091 81 Bustos 88,445 82 Medina 87,578 83 Pino 86,295 84 Palma 82,735 85 Moreno 82,548 86 Sanhueza 82,383 87 Carvajal 81,785 88 Navarrete 81,729 89 Sáez 80,938 90 Alvarado 79,985 91 Donoso 79,855 92 Poblete 79,248 93 Bustamante 78,732 94 Toro 78,659 95 Ortega 78,086 96 Venegas 76,900 97 Guerrero 76,823 98 Paredes 75,825 99 Farías 75,242 100 San Martín 74,575 Top 100 15,802,580 # 1st surname % ofpopulation 1 González 4.7 2 Muñoz 3.7 3 Rojas 2.6 4 Díaz 2.6 5 Pérez 2.1 6 Soto 1.9 7 Contreras 1.8 8 Silva 1.6 9 Martínez 1.6 10 Sepúlveda 1.6 Top 10 24.2
Note: The source (Civil Registry and Identification Service) does not mention the reference year (it was published in 2008) or whether the count includes only the first surname or both surnames (Chile uses two surnames, but the second one is rarely mentioned). It is assumed the first table refers to both surnames (it is unknown if people having the same first and second surname are counted once or twice) and the second table to the first surname only. It is also unclear whether Chileans living abroad were counted, although it is probable that those that were born in Chile were included, as they were registered at birth.
Colombia All names in the list are of Spanish origin (2010 data).
# Surname People 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 Rojas 286,038 14 Moreno 265,374 15 Jiménez 261,391
Source: National Civil Registry (2010)Los apellidos más comunes en Colombia , Nuestra Huella, número 46, 1 December 2010
Guyana All surnames are of Indian (of both the Hindu and Muslim faiths) or English origin. RankSurname 1 Persaud 2 Singh 3 Williams 4 Khan 5 Thomas 6 Joseph 7 Henry 8 James 9 Mohamed 10 Smith
Paraguay The list of most common surnames in Paraguay, reflected in the national voters register, shows the influence of Castilian Spanish in the Paraguayan society.
Eight of the top 11 surnames end with "ez", the distinctive suffix of Castilian family names. The suffix "ez" means "son of"; thus, González means "son of Gonzalo", Benítez is "son of Benito" and Martínez means "son of Martín". This is similar to the suffix "son" in English (Johnson, "son of John", Jackson, "son of Jack") and to "ic" or "ich" of Slavic names such as Ivanovich ("son of Ivan").
Rank%SurnameOrigin 1 6.62 González Spanish 2 4.84 Benítez Spanish 3 4.18 Martínez Spanish 4 3.13 López Spanish 5 2.61 Giménez Spanish 6 2.54 Vera Spanish 7 2.08 Duarte Spanish 8 2.05 Ramírez Spanish 9 2.01 Villalba Spanish 10 1.94 Fernández Spanish 11 1.81 Gómez Spanish 12 1.78 Acosta Spanish 13 1.76 Rojas Spanish 14 1.69 Ortiz Spanish 15 1.68 Cáceres Spanish 16 1.58 Rodríguez Spanish 17 1.57 Ruiz Spanish 18 1.54 Núñez Spanish 19 1.48 Ayala Spanish 20 1.46 Báez Spanish 21 1.39 Galeano Spanish 22 1.34 Herrera Spanish 23 1.27 Franco Spanish 24 1.25 Torres Spanish 25 1.25 Cardozo Spanish
All surnames are of Spanish origin, except when noted.
Peru All surnames are of Spanish origin, except when noted.
Rank% (of the sample)Surname 1 2.175 Quispe (Quechuan surname) 2 2.144 Flores 3 2.031 Sánchez 4 1.987 Rodríguez 5 1.948 García 6 1.66 Rojas 7 1.456 González 8 1.434 Díaz 9 1.412 Chávez 10 1.403 Torres 11 1.395 Ramírez 12 1.373 Mendoza 13 1.364 Ramos 14 1.351 López 15 1.26 Castillo 16 1.26 Espinoza 17 1.172 Vásquez 18 1.076 Huamán (Quechuan surname) 19 1.072 Pérez 20 1.068 Vargas 21 1.042 Gutiérrez 22 0.985 Fernández 23 0.981 Castro 24 0.928 Mamani (Aymara surname) 25 0.928 Ruíz 26 0.854 Romero 27 0.846 Martínez 28 0.832 Morales 29 0.824 Reyes 30 0.802 Salazar
Suriname
RankSurname 1 Lin 2 Pinas 3 Wong 4 Chin 5 Mohan 6 Kalloe 7 Singh 8 Lie 9 van Dijk 10 Tjin 11 Kluivert 12 Semil 13 Sabajo
See also
List of family name affixes List of most popular given names Lists of most common surnames, for other continents
References