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

Hernández, 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 Hernández surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Hernández in America

Hernández is the 118185th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Hernández surname appeared 147 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 Hernández.

We can also compare 2010 data for Hernández 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 Hernández

The surname "Harnandez" is of Spanish origin, deriving from the ancient Arabic personal name "Harnand". This name was brought to the Iberian Peninsula during the Moorish conquest of Spain in the 8th century AD.

The earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in medieval Spanish documents from the 13th and 14th centuries, often spelled as "Fernandez" or "Hernandez". The initial "H" was likely a later addition to reflect the guttural sound of the Arabic letter "Hā" (ح).

One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Pedro Fernandez de Castro, a 13th-century Castilian nobleman and military leader during the Reconquista. He was granted extensive lands and titles for his services to King Alfonso VIII of Castile.

In the 15th century, the Harnandez name gained prominence through Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, known as "El Gran Capitán" (The Great Captain). He was a celebrated military leader in the service of the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, and played a crucial role in the conquest of Granada in 1492.

Another notable figure bearing the name was Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, a 16th-century Spanish conquistador and explorer. He led the first Spanish expedition to the Yucatán Peninsula in 1517, marking the beginning of the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

During the colonial era, the Harnandez name spread throughout the Spanish Empire, particularly in the Americas. One prominent individual was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese-born explorer who sailed for Spain. In 1542, he was the first European to navigate the coast of what is now California.

In the realm of literature, Miguel Hernández, a 20th-century Spanish poet and playwright, is renowned for his works reflecting the struggles of the working class and his opposition to the Franco regime. He was born in 1910 and died in 1942 after enduring imprisonment during the Spanish Civil War.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Hernández

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

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

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Hernández, 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!