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

Gerena, 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 Gerena surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Gerena in America

Gerena is the 11066th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Gerena surname appeared 2,871 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 Gerena.

We can also compare 2010 data for Gerena 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 Gerena

The surname Gerena is of Spanish origin and dates back to the Middle Ages. It is believed to have originated in the northern regions of Spain, particularly in the Basque Country and the regions of Navarre and Aragon.

The name Gerena is thought to derive from the Basque word "geren," which means "ours" or "belonging to us." This suggests that the name may have originally referred to a collective or community ownership of land or property. Alternatively, it could be a variation of the Spanish word "gerencia," meaning "management" or "administration," potentially indicating an occupation or profession.

Early records of the name Gerena can be found in medieval documents and charters from the 13th and 14th centuries. For instance, a document from the Monasterio de San Salvador de Leyre in Navarre, dated 1287, mentions a certain Sancho Gerena as a witness. Another document from the Archivo de la Corona de Aragón, dated 1354, refers to a Juan Gerena as a landowner in the village of Igriés.

The earliest known recorded instance of the name Gerena is found in the Becerro de las Behetrías de Castilla, a census of landowners and vassals in the Kingdom of Castile, compiled between 1352 and 1354. This document lists several individuals with the surname Gerena, including Pedro Gerena from the town of Quintanapalla and Martín Gerena from the village of Villanueva de las Carretas.

Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the surname Gerena. One prominent figure was Juan Gerena y Ponce de León (1592-1678), a Spanish military officer and governor of Puerto Rico from 1653 to 1659. Another notable bearer of the name was María Gerena (1615-1692), a Spanish nun and mystic who founded the Convent of the Purísima Concepción in Seville.

In the 19th century, José Gerena y García (1823-1892) was a prominent Cuban lawyer, politician, and advocate for Cuban independence from Spain. Francisco Gerena (1845-1914) was a Spanish painter known for his landscapes and genre scenes depicting rural life in Aragon.

More recently, Victor Gerena (born 1958) was a former member of the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (FALN), a Puerto Rican nationalist group, who carried out one of the largest cash robberies in United States history in 1983 and has been a fugitive since then.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Gerena

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

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

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

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