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

Guarnizo, 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 Guarnizo surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Guarnizo in America

Guarnizo is the 121590th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Guarnizo surname appeared 142 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Guarnizo.

The history of the last name Guarnizo

The surname Guarnizo originates from the Cantabria region of northern Spain. It is thought to derive from the Cantabrian-Romanesque word "guarnizo," which referred to a type of rocky outcrop or cliff formation. The name likely originated as a descriptive term for someone who lived near such geological features.

Historically, the name appears in records dating back to the 12th century in the area around the modern-day municipality of Guarnizo, located near the city of Santander. The town itself took its name from the rocky outcrops in the landscape. Early spellings included Guarnizo, Guarnicu, and Guarnicu.

In the 13th century, a notable bearer of the name was Pedro Guarnizo, a landowner and local official in the town of Guarnizo. Records from 1265 reference his involvement in a boundary dispute with neighboring villages.

The Guarnizo name spread across northern Spain in the following centuries, with branches appearing in Asturias, Vizcaya, and other coastal regions. In 1487, Juan Guarnizo was recorded as a merchant and ship owner based in the port city of Bilbao.

Moving into the Renaissance period, the explorer and conquistador Diego Guarnizo was born around 1530 in Santander. He participated in the Spanish conquest of the Americas, establishing settlements in what is now Colombia and Venezuela in the 1560s.

Other notable individuals with this surname include Manuel Guarnizo (1701-1782), a lawyer and academic who served as rector of the University of Valladolid, and Joaquín Guarnizo (1784-1863), a military officer who fought in the Peninsular War against Napoleonic forces.

In the 19th century, Isabel Guarnizo y Alonso (1812-1891) was a renowned poet and writer active in the cultural circles of Madrid. One of her collections, "Rimas y Cantares," was published in 1856 to critical acclaim.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Guarnizo

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

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 Guarnizo 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.

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

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

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