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

Munívez, 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 Munívez surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Munívez in America

Munívez is the 130610th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Munívez surname appeared 130 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 Munívez.

The history of the last name Munívez

The surname MUNIVEZ is believed to have originated in the Basque region of northern Spain and southwestern France during the late medieval period. It is thought to derive from the Basque words "muni" meaning "border" or "boundary" and "bez" meaning "valley" or "basin." This suggests the name may have originally referred to someone who lived in a valley near a regional border or boundary area.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the MUNIVEZ name appears in a 14th century tax record from the village of Ezpeleta in the historical province of Labourd, now part of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques region of southwestern France. The name is listed as "Moneveç" in this document. Other early spellings include "Munivez" and "Monivez" found in land deeds and census records from the 1500s in villages around the Basque town of Irun near the Spanish border.

No specific historical figures of great renown bore the MUNIVEZ surname in its earliest centuries. However, in the 1700s a Basque merchant named Pedro Munivez (1701-1785) established a successful trading business exporting wool and wine from San Sebastián to England and the Americas. His grandson Martín Munivez (1762-1826) was an officer in the Spanish navy during the Napoleonic Wars.

In the 19th century, Juan Munivez (1815-1897) was a prominent shipbuilder from the port town of Pasaia. He constructed several ships for the Spanish Armada. His cousin María Munivez (1837-1903) was one of the first female schoolteachers in the region, helping to establish several rural schools for girls near Hondarribia.

As the Basque population migrated in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the name spread to areas of the Americas with concentrated Basque immigrant communities. Feliciano Munivez (1869-1941), born in Irun, settled in Winnemucca, Nevada and was a prosperous sheep rancher. And José Munivez (1898-1972) from Pasaia became a notable architect who designed many buildings in Boise, Idaho.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Munívez

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

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 Munívez 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.

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

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

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