Montejano last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Montejano

A Spanish toponymic surname indicating a person from the region of Montejano, derived from the word "mont" meaning mountain.

Montejano, 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 Montejano surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Montejano in America

Montejano is the 9907th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Montejano surname appeared 3,263 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 Montejano.

We can also compare 2010 data for Montejano 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.

2010 2000 Change (%)
Rank 9907 11884 -18.15%
Count 3,263 2,412 29.99%
Proportion per 100k 1.11 0.89 22.00%

The history of the last name Montejano

The surname MONTEJANO originated in Spain during the late Middle Ages. It is derived from the Spanish words "monte" meaning mountain and "jano" likely referring to a person's name or place of origin. This suggests the name may have been given to someone who lived near or came from a mountainous area.

Early recordings of the name can be found in historical documents from regions like Andalusia and Extremadura in southern Spain. Variations in spelling like Montexano and Montejana were sometimes used in these early records from the 14th and 15th centuries.

One notable early bearer of the name was Miguel Montejano, a Spanish conquistador born around 1480 who participated in the conquest of Mexico alongside Hernán Cortés in the early 1500s. Records show he was granted an encomienda, or land grant, in the Valley of Mexico after the fall of the Aztec Empire.

In the 1600s, the Montejano name appears in parish records from towns like Grazalema in Cádiz province. Pedro Montejano, born in 1635, was a respected elder and landowner in this mountain village according to local archives from that era.

As the Spanish Empire expanded, the name spread to regions like Mexico, the Philippines, and parts of the Americas colonized by Spain. Sebastián Montejano, born in 1732 in Guadalajara, New Spain (now Mexico), became a prosperous merchant and rancher whose descendants carried on the family name.

Other noteworthy individuals with this surname include Manuel Montejano y Aguiñaga (1779-1853), a Spanish military officer and colonial governor of Spanish Florida, and Antonio Montejano y Espartero (1823-1897), a Peruvian politician who served as interim president of Peru in 1857.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Montejano

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

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 Montejano was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 6.13% 200
Non-Hispanic Black Only (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only 0.40% 13
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.40% 13
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races (S)% (S)
Hispanic Origin 92.89% 3,031

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 Montejano has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 6.13% 4.73% 25.78%
Black (S)% (S)% (S)%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.40% (S)% (S)%
American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.40% (S)% (S)%
Two or More Races (S)% (S)% (S)%
Hispanic 92.89% 94.82% -2.06%

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

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

Reference this page

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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!

"Montejano last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com. Accessed on October 3, 2024. http://namecensus.com/last-names/montejano-surname-popularity/.

"Montejano last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com, http://namecensus.com/last-names/montejano-surname-popularity/. Accessed 3 October, 2024

Montejano last name popularity, history, and meaning. NameCensus.com. Retrieved from http://namecensus.com/last-names/montejano-surname-popularity/.

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