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

Mercurio, 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 Mercurio surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Mercurio in America

Mercurio is the 7357th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Mercurio surname appeared 4,528 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 2 people would have the surname Mercurio.

We can also compare 2010 data for Mercurio 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 Mercurio

The surname Mercurio has its origins in Italy, dating back to the late medieval period, around the 13th to 15th centuries. It is derived from the Latin name "Mercurius," which was the name of the Roman god of commerce, eloquence, and travelers. The name is believed to have been adopted as a surname by families engaged in mercantile or trading activities, or those who lived near a place dedicated to the god Mercury.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the surname Mercurio can be found in the Florentine Codex, a 16th-century ethnographic work by the Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún, which mentions a Mercurio family residing in the city of Florence. Another notable early reference is found in the Catasto, a historical census of the city of Venice, which includes several families with the surname Mercurio in the 15th century.

The Mercurio surname is also linked to several place names in Italy, such as Mercurio Vecchio and Mercurio Nuovo in the Calabria region, as well as Mercurio in the province of Salerno. These place names may have influenced the adoption of the surname by families residing in or near these locations.

Several notable individuals throughout history have borne the surname Mercurio. One of the earliest was Pietro Mercurio, a 13th-century Venetian merchant and diplomat who served as an ambassador to the Byzantine Empire. In the 16th century, Girolamo Mercurio was a renowned Italian jurist and legal scholar, known for his work on Roman law.

During the Renaissance period, the Mercurio family produced several notable artists and intellectuals. Vincenzo Mercurio (1520-1598) was a renowned Italian painter and sculptor, known for his works in churches across Italy. Tommaso Mercurio (1575-1635) was a prominent philosopher and professor at the University of Padua, known for his writings on metaphysics and natural philosophy.

In more recent times, Giuseppe Mercurio (1877-1957) was an Italian composer and conductor, known for his operas and orchestral works. Rocco Mercurio (1891-1971) was a prominent Italian-American artist and sculptor, known for his public monuments and sculptures across the United States.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Mercurio

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

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

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

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