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

Matilla, 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 Matilla surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Matilla in America

Matilla is the 116201st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Matilla surname appeared 150 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 Matilla.

We can also compare 2010 data for Matilla 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 Matilla

The surname Matilla is believed to have originated in Spain, specifically in the region of Castile. It dates back to at least the 12th century and is thought to be derived from the Latin word "matella," which means "small bowl" or "small pot." This suggests that the name may have originally referred to an occupation, perhaps a potter or someone involved in the production or sale of small ceramic vessels.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Matilla can be found in a medieval manuscript from the Monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla in La Rioja, Spain, dated around 1150. The document mentions a certain "Domingo Matilla" as a landowner in the area.

The name also appears in the Becerro de las Behetrías de Castilla, a 14th-century census of landowners and vassals in the Kingdom of Castile. This record includes several individuals with the surname Matilla, indicating that the name was well-established in the region by that time.

In the 15th century, a notable figure bearing the surname Matilla was Juan Matilla, a prominent merchant and landowner from the town of Medina del Campo, which was a major commercial center in medieval Castile. Juan Matilla was born around 1420 and is mentioned in various historical documents related to trade and land transactions.

During the 16th century, the Matilla name can be found in records from the Spanish colonial territories in the Americas. One example is Pedro Matilla, a conquistador who participated in the conquest of Peru under Francisco Pizarro in the 1530s.

Another noteworthy individual with the surname Matilla was Bernardo Matilla y Fernández, a Spanish military officer who served in the Spanish Army during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century. He was born in 1776 in the town of Tordesillas, Valladolid, and participated in several battles against the French forces.

In more recent centuries, the surname Matilla has spread beyond Spain to other parts of the Spanish-speaking world, including Latin America and the United States, but its origins can be traced back to the medieval Kingdom of Castile in the Iberian Peninsula.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Matilla

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

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

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

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