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

Díaz, 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 Díaz surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Díaz in America

Díaz is the 55th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Díaz surname appeared 347,636 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 118 people would have the surname Díaz.

We can also compare 2010 data for Díaz 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 Díaz

The surname Diaz originated in Spain and is of Spanish/Iberian origin. It derives from the personal name Dias, which was a medieval Spanish form of the Roman name Didacus. Dias or Diaz ultimately traces back to the Greek name Didakos, meaning "instructed" or "taught".

Diaz is a patronymic surname, meaning it was originally formed by adding the suffix "-ez" (meaning "son of") to the father's given name Dias. So Diaz essentially means "son of Dias". The surname first appeared in written records in the 11th century as a distinguishing name for people in Spain.

One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Ruy Diaz de Vivar (c.1026-1099), a Castilian knight better known as El Cid, who played a pivotal role in the Reconquista, the centuries-long period of Christian conquest of Moorish territories across the Iberian Peninsula. The "Song of My Cid" (c.1200) is an important early literary work that references El Cid.

Pedro Diaz (c.1546-1618) was a famous Spanish Dominican friar and theologian who taught at the prestigious University of Salamanca. Juan Diaz de Solis (c.1470-1516) was a celebrated Spanish navigator and explorer who led the first European expedition to explore the territory that is now Argentina and Uruguay.

In Portugal, Bartholomeu Diaz (c.1450-1500) was a Portuguese explorer who was the first European to sail around the southern tip of Africa in 1488, then known as the Cape of Storms, but renamed the Cape of Good Hope by King John II. His voyage opened up an important trade route for Portugal.

Pedro Diaz Morante (1564-1636) was a Spanish poet and playwright who lived during the Golden Age of Spanish literature and whose poems were published in collections alongside works by Lope de Vega and Luis de Góngora.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Díaz

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

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

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

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