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

Jara, 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 Jara surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Jara in America

Jara is the 4042nd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Jara surname appeared 8,790 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 3 people would have the surname Jara.

We can also compare 2010 data for Jara 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 Jara

The surname Jara originated in Spain and has its roots in the Arabic word 'jarrah', which means 'surgeon' or 'barber'. It is believed to have been introduced to the Iberian Peninsula during the Moorish occupation of Spain, which lasted from the 8th to the 15th centuries.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the Jara surname can be found in the Libro de la Montería, a medieval hunting treatise written in the 14th century during the reign of King Alfonso XI of Castile. The book mentions a certain Juan Jara, who held the position of Montero Mayor, or Chief Huntsman, in the king's court.

In the 16th century, the Jara surname appeared in various records of the Spanish Inquisition, indicating that some individuals bearing this name were subject to scrutiny by the Catholic Church's infamous tribunals. Notable examples include Diego Jara, a merchant from Seville who was tried in 1550, and Juan de Jara, a clergyman from Granada who faced charges in 1567.

As the Spanish Empire expanded across the Atlantic, the Jara surname traveled to the Americas, particularly to regions that were part of the Spanish colonial territories. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name in the New World can be found in the archives of Mexico City, where a certain Pedro Jara is mentioned as a landowner in the early 17th century.

Among the notable figures who bore the Jara surname throughout history, we can mention Hernando Jara (1545-1610), a Spanish soldier and explorer who participated in the conquest of the Philippines and served as the first Spanish governor of the island of Guam. Another prominent individual was Juan Jara Almirante (1725-1799), a Spanish naval officer who played a crucial role in the defense of the Spanish colony of Louisiana during the American Revolutionary War.

In the realm of literature, the Chilean poet and Nobel Laureate Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957), whose birth name was Lucila Godoy Alcayaga, adopted the pseudonym "Mistral" as a tribute to her maternal grandmother's maiden name, Jara.

The Jara surname has also been associated with various artistic and cultural figures, such as the Mexican actor and director Alfonso Jara (1918-1992), the Peruvian singer-songwriter Julio Jara (1939-2019), and the Colombian painter and sculptor Alejandro Jara (born 1938).

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Jara

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

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

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

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