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

Fonseca, 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 Fonseca surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Fonseca in America

Fonseca is the 1363rd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Fonseca surname appeared 25,863 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 9 people would have the surname Fonseca.

We can also compare 2010 data for Fonseca 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 Fonseca

The surname Fonseca has its origins in Portugal, dating back to the medieval period. It is derived from the Portuguese words "fonte" meaning "spring" or "fountain" and "seca" meaning "dry". The name likely referred to someone who lived near a dry spring or a place where a spring had dried up.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Fonseca can be found in the 13th century. In 1250, a nobleman named João Fernandes da Fonseca was listed as a witness in a legal document in the city of Braga, northern Portugal. This suggests that the surname was already established among the Portuguese nobility by that time.

In the 14th century, the Fonseca family played a prominent role in the Portuguese exploration of the Atlantic Ocean and the colonization of the Azores Islands. In 1439, Gonçalo Velho Cabral, a member of the Fonseca family, was appointed as the first captain-major of the island of Santa Maria in the Azores.

The Fonseca surname also has a strong connection to the Catholic Church. In the 15th century, Pedro da Fonseca (1528-1599) was a renowned Spanish philosopher and theologian who served as the rector of the University of Coimbra in Portugal. He is considered one of the most influential figures in the development of the Jesuit educational system.

Another notable figure was Manuel da Fonseca e Silva (1691-1766), a Portuguese diplomat and architect who designed several important buildings in Lisbon, including the Águas Livres Aqueduct and the Church of São Roque.

In the 19th century, Deodoro da Fonseca (1827-1892) was a Brazilian military officer and politician who served as the first President of Brazil after the country's transition from a monarchy to a republic in 1889.

Beyond Portugal and Brazil, the Fonseca surname also has a presence in other parts of the world. For example, Rubén Fonseca (born 1925) is a Colombian writer and screenwriter known for his works of crime fiction, while Eduardo Fonseca (1958-2022) was a renowned Peruvian chef and restaurateur.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Fonseca

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

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

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

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!