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

Béjar, 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 Béjar surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Béjar in America

Béjar is the 13622nd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Béjar surname appeared 2,224 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Béjar.

We can also compare 2010 data for Béjar 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 Béjar

The surname Bejar is of Spanish origin, deriving from the town of Bejar in the province of Salamanca, Spain. The name is believed to have originated in the 8th or 9th century, during the Moorish occupation of the Iberian Peninsula.

Bejar is thought to come from the Arabic word "bajar," meaning "plain" or "meadow," which likely described the geographic location of the town. Records from the 12th century refer to the town as "Baxar" or "Vaxar," indicating the name's evolution over time.

One of the earliest known references to the surname Bejar can be found in the Libro de las Behetrías, a medieval Spanish manuscript dating back to the 14th century. This document recorded the names of landowners and their properties across various regions of Spain.

In the 15th century, during the reign of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, a nobleman named Pedro de Bejar is mentioned in historical records as having played a significant role in the Spanish Reconquista, the campaign to drive the Moors out of the Iberian Peninsula.

Another notable figure bearing the Bejar surname was Diego de Bejar, a 16th-century Spanish explorer and conquistador who accompanied Hernán Cortés in the conquest of Mexico. He is believed to have been born in the town of Bejar around 1495.

The surname Bejar also has connections to the Spanish monarchy. In the 17th century, a member of the Bejar family, María de Bejar y Ibáñez de Segovia, was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Mariana of Spain, the wife of King Philip IV.

In the 19th century, a prominent figure named Manuel Bejar was a Mexican businessman and landowner who played a significant role in the development of the city of San Antonio, Texas. He was born in Spain in 1789 and later settled in Mexico before ultimately moving to Texas.

As the surname Bejar spread throughout Spain and its colonies, variations in spelling emerged, such as Béjar, Béxar, and Bexar. Some of these variations can be traced back to place names, like the town of Béjar in Salamanca or the city of Bexar (now San Antonio) in Texas, which was originally established by Spanish settlers from the Canary Islands.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Béjar

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

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

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

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