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

Atempa, 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 Atempa surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Atempa in America

Atempa is the 63698th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Atempa surname appeared 313 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 Atempa.

We can also compare 2010 data for Atempa 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 Atempa

The surname "ATEMPA" originates from the Basque Country, a region spanning parts of northern Spain and southwestern France. Its roots can be traced back to the medieval period, around the 12th to 14th centuries.

The name is believed to be derived from the Basque words "ate" meaning "door" and "empa" meaning "place" or "location." This suggests that the original bearers of the name may have lived near a particular entrance or gateway, perhaps in a fortified town or village.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name appears in a land registry document from the year 1387, which mentions a certain Petri de Atempa as a landowner in the village of Larrau, located in the historical province of Navarre, now part of the Basque Autonomous Community.

In the 16th century, during the Spanish Inquisition, several members of the Atempa family were persecuted for their suspected adherence to Jewish or Converso heritage. A notable example is Juana de Atempa, born in 1528 in the town of Vitoria-Gasteiz, who was tried and imprisoned by the Inquisition in 1568.

Another prominent figure bearing the Atempa name was Martín de Atempa, a 17th-century Basque explorer and navigator who accompanied several expeditions to the Americas. He is said to have participated in the exploration of the Pacific Coast of present-day Mexico and California between 1625 and 1635.

During the 19th century, the Atempa surname appeared in several Basque cultural and literary circles. One notable example is the playwright and poet José María de Atempa, born in 1821 in the town of Hernani, whose works explored themes of Basque identity and folklore.

In more recent times, the name has been carried by individuals such as Miguel Atempa, a renowned Basque architect born in 1903 in Bilbao, whose distinctive modernist buildings can be found throughout the region.

While the surname is most prevalent in the Basque Country and neighboring areas of northern Spain and southwestern France, it has also been carried by Basque emigrants and their descendants in various parts of the world, including Latin America and the United States.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Atempa

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

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 Atempa 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 Atempa 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 Atempa was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

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

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