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

Jiménez, 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 Jiménez surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Jiménez in America

Jiménez is the 12192nd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Jiménez surname appeared 2,555 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 Jiménez.

We can also compare 2010 data for Jiménez 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 Jiménez

The surname Jimenes is of Spanish origin and can be traced back to the 12th century. It is believed to have originated from the Spanish region of Andalusia, particularly in the city of Jerez de la Frontera. The name is a patronymic form derived from the Spanish given name Jimeno, which itself has roots in the Germanic name Semeno.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jimenes can be found in a 13th-century document from the Monastery of Santa María de las Dueñas in Seville, where a certain Ferran Jimenes is mentioned. This document dates back to around 1250 AD.

In the 14th century, the name appeared in various records related to the Reconquista, the period of Christian re-conquest of the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim rule. One notable figure from this era was Gonzalo Jimenes de Quesada, a Spanish conquistador who led the conquest of the Muisca Confederation (now part of modern-day Colombia) in the early 16th century.

Another prominent individual with this surname was Rodrigo Jimenes de Rada, a 13th-century Spanish archbishop and historian who wrote the notable work "De Rebus Hispaniae" (On the Affairs of Spain). He was born around 1170 and died in 1247.

In the world of literature, the surname Jimenes is associated with Juan Ramón Jiménez, a Spanish poet and Nobel laureate in Literature (1956). He was born in 1881 and passed away in 1958.

During the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the surname Jimenes was carried to various parts of the New World, including Mexico, where it evolved into the variant spelling "Jimenez." One notable figure with this spelling was Fray Juan de Jiménez, a 16th-century Spanish Franciscan friar and missionary who played a significant role in the evangelization of Mexico.

Another individual of note was Diego Jiménez de Enciso, a 16th-century Spanish explorer and writer who accompanied the expedition of Vasco Núñez de Balboa and later wrote an account of his travels, titled "Suma de Geografía" (Compendium of Geography).

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Jiménez

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

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

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

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