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

Menchaca, 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 Menchaca surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Menchaca in America

Menchaca is the 4345th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Menchaca surname appeared 8,169 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 Menchaca.

We can also compare 2010 data for Menchaca 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 Menchaca

The surname Menchaca has its origins in the Basque region of Spain and France. It is derived from the Basque words "mendia" meaning mountain and "atxa" meaning steep or rugged. The name likely originated as a toponymic surname, referring to a person who lived near or came from a rugged mountainous area.

In the early medieval period, the name appears in various records and manuscripts from the Basque Country. One of the earliest recorded instances is in the Codex de Roda, a 10th-century cartulary from the monastery of Santa María de Roda in Aragon, where the name is spelled "Mendiatxa".

By the 12th century, the surname had evolved to its modern spelling of Menchaca. It is found in various Basque-language documents and land records from this period, indicating that families with this surname were well-established in the region.

One notable early bearer of the Menchaca name was Juan de Menchaca, a 16th-century jurist and legal scholar from the town of Villasana de Mena in Burgos, Spain. He was born in 1499 and is best known for his work "Controversiarum illustrium" (Illustrious Controversies), which dealt with issues of international law.

In the 17th century, the Menchaca surname began to spread beyond the Basque Country, as individuals and families migrated to other parts of Spain and the Spanish colonies in the Americas. Pedro de Menchaca (1592-1666), a Spanish military officer and colonial administrator, served as the Governor of Chile from 1637 to 1639.

Another prominent figure with this surname was Tomás de Menchaca (1623-1688), a Spanish Baroque painter known for his religious works and portraiture. He was born in Seville and spent much of his career working in Madrid and other cities in Spain.

As the Spanish Empire expanded, the Menchaca surname was carried to the Americas, where it took root in various regions. In the 18th century, José Menchaca (1720-1799) was a prominent landowner and rancher in the Mexican state of Coahuila y Texas, contributing to the early development of the region.

In the 19th century, Manuel Menchaca (1801-1882) was a Mexican military officer and politician who played a role in the Mexican-American War and later served as the governor of the state of Chihuahua.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Menchaca

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

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

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