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

Bustamante, 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 Bustamante surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Bustamante in America

Bustamante is the 1454th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Bustamante surname appeared 24,536 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 8 people would have the surname Bustamante.

We can also compare 2010 data for Bustamante 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 Bustamante

The surname Bustamante originated in Spain during the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Spanish words "buen" meaning "good" and "estante" meaning "station" or "place." The name likely referred to a desirable location or a person who lived in a favorable place.

The earliest recorded instances of the name Bustamante can be traced back to the 12th century in the northern Spanish regions of Cantabria and Castile. The name appears in several medieval documents, including the Becerro de las Behetrías, a 14th-century manuscript that documented landholdings and nobility in the region.

One of the earliest notable individuals with the surname Bustamante was Rodrigo Pérez de Bustamante, a 13th-century nobleman and military commander from Cantabria who fought in the Reconquista against the Moors. Another early figure was Juan de Bustamante, a 15th-century Spanish explorer and navigator who accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the Americas in 1493.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Bustamante family played a significant role in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Diego de Bustamante, born in 1523, was a Spanish conquistador and one of the founders of the city of Santa Fe de Bogotá, now the capital of Colombia. Another prominent figure was Juan de Bustamante y Centeno, a 17th-century Spanish nobleman and governor of the Philippines from 1616 to 1624.

In the 18th century, José María Bustamante, born in 1759, was a Mexican lawyer and politician who served as the interim president of Mexico in 1837. He played a crucial role in the Mexican War of Independence and the establishment of the Mexican Republic.

The name Bustamante has also been associated with various place names in Spain, such as Bustamante (Cantabria), a municipality in the Cantabrian region, and Bustamante (Asturias), a parish in the Principality of Asturias.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Bustamante

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

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

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

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