Find out how popular the last name Arroya is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Arroya.

Arroya, like all of the last 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 Arroya surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Arroya in America

Arroya is the 110286th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Arroya surname appeared 160 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Arroya.

We can also compare 2010 data for Arroya 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.

The history of the last name Arroya

The surname ARROYA has its origins in Spain, dating back to the 16th century. It is believed to be derived from the Spanish word "arroyo," meaning a small stream or brook, which suggests that the name may have initially referred to someone who lived near a small waterway.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name ARROYA can be found in the archives of the Spanish town of Sevilla, where a certain Juan de Arroya was mentioned in a document from 1587. Another early reference comes from the village of Montijo, where a family by the name of Arroya is recorded as having lived in the late 1500s.

During the 17th century, the name ARROYA began to appear more frequently in various Spanish records, particularly in regions such as Andalusia and Extremadura. In 1612, a man named Pedro Arroya was listed as a landowner in the town of Zafra, while a woman named María Arroya was recorded as a resident of Jerez de la Frontera in 1638.

As the Spanish Empire expanded across the Atlantic, the name ARROYA also found its way to the Americas. In 1673, a man named Diego Arroya was among the earliest settlers in the Spanish colony of Nueva España (present-day Mexico). Another notable figure was Juana Arroya, who was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1712 and became a prominent landowner in the region.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the ARROYA surname continued to be found in various parts of Spain and its colonies. One prominent individual was Francisco Arroya, a military officer who served in the Spanish army during the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). Another was Sebastián Arroya, a renowned poet and playwright from Madrid, born in 1789 and active during the Romantic period.

In the late 19th century, the name ARROYA began to spread to other parts of the world as a result of Spanish emigration. For instance, a man named Miguel Arroya was among the first Spanish settlers in the town of Ponce, Puerto Rico, in the 1870s. Additionally, a family by the name of Arroya established themselves in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, around the same time.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Arroya

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

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:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

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

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 Arroya has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Arroya was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Arroya, please contact us.

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