Najera Last Name Popularity, Meaning and Origin

In this article we'll look at the origin and meaning of the surname Najera and how popular it is in the United States. We'll also look at the race and ethnic origin of people in the United States who are named Najera.

Najera, like all of the names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Najera surname is from the 2010 census data.

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What is the Origin and Meaning of the Last Name Najera?

The surname Najera is one of several extant family names that originate from the ancient kingdom of Navarre. This age-old kingdom was located on the North coast of Spain and was a region that was often at war with the Germanic Visigoths and the Franks who hailed from what is now France. During the 8th and 9th centuries the local Vascone tribe, the ancestors of modern-day Basques, started to assimilate from the neighboring tribes.

In the year 824, the Basque chieftain Inigo Arista became the king of Pamplona and founded the Basque kingdom that would eventually become Navarre. Naming practices in the region often led to people using the place they were born as their surname if they moved away. Those who came from Navarre went by a number of names including Navarro, Navarijo, Najara and of course Najera.

An early mention of the Najera version of the name comes from Juan de Najera in Villapalacio, San Sebastian, Spain in 1573. In translation Juan de Najera means "Juan of Najera" or essentially "Navarre."

Manuel Gutiérrez Najera (December 22, 1859 – February 3, 1895) was a political figure and writer who was born in Mexico City. Schooled largely at home by his mother he was also taught French and Latin. As a young man, Manuel worked as a journalist writing poems and short stories. Najera worked under a number of pseudonyms and left behind an impressive body of work much of which was not recorded under his own name.

Antonio Vallejo-Najera (1889–1960) was a controversial psychiatrist who postulated a link between Marxism and mental retardation. During the Spanish Civil War (1936 -1939) Najera’s theories caused the separation of a suspected 30,000 children from their socialist families.

Where Does Najera Rank in the Most Common U.S. Names?

According to the data, Najera is ranked #1,971 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

The Najera surname appeared 18,340 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 6.22 would have the surname Najera.

We can also compare 2010 data for Najera to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

2010 2000 Change (%)
Rank 1971 2698 -31.14%
Count 18,340 12,270 39.66%
Proportion per 100k 6.22 4.55 31.01%

Race and Ethnic Origin of People with the Last Name Najera

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Najera.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups: "White only", "Black only", "American Indian and Alaskan Native only", "Asian and Pacific Islander only", "Two or More Races", and "Hispanic".

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Najera was:

  • 3.66%, or 671 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic White Only".
  • 0.27%, or 50 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic Black Only".
  • 0.61%, or 112 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only".
  • 0.28%, or 51 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native".
  • 0.24%, or 44 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races".
  • 94.95%, or 17,414 total occurrences, were "Hispanic Origin".

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Najera has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 3.66% 4.35% -17.23%
Black 0.27% 0.29% -7.14%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.61% 0.74% -19.26%
American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.28% 0.27% 3.64%
Two or More Races 0.24% 0.39% -47.62%
Hispanic 94.95% 93.96% 1.05%

Data Source(s)

All of the data on this page is sourced from the Decennial Census survey, from the United States Census Bureau.

Link To or Reference This Page

We spent a lot of time downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!

  • "Najera Last Name Popularity, Meaning and Origin". NameCensus.com. Accessed on March 29, 2024. https://namecensus.com/last-names/najera-surname-popularity/.

  • "Najera Last Name Popularity, Meaning and Origin". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/najera-surname-popularity/. Accessed 29 March, 2024

  • Najera Last Name Popularity, Meaning and Origin. NameCensus.com. Retrieved from https://namecensus.com/last-names/najera-surname-popularity/.