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

Murguía, 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 Murguía surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Murguía in America

Murguía is the 7983rd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Murguía surname appeared 4,141 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 Murguía.

We can also compare 2010 data for Murguía 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 Murguía

The surname Murguia originated in the Basque region of northern Spain and southwestern France. It is derived from the Basque words "mur" meaning hill and "gui" meaning people, essentially translating to "people of the hill." The name dates back to the early medieval period, around the 8th to 10th centuries.

The Basque region was known for its rugged, hilly terrain, and the name likely referred to people who lived in or were associated with these hill settlements. It's believed that the earliest bearers of the name were from the Navarre region, which spans parts of both modern-day Spain and France.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the Murguia name appears in the Becerro Antiguo de Guipúzcoa, a 14th-century manuscript that documented noble families and landowners in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa. The name is also found in various legal documents and records from the region during the 15th and 16th centuries.

As the Basque people migrated and settled in different parts of Spain and beyond, the Murguia name spread to other regions. In the 16th century, there are records of individuals with the surname in Cantabria, a coastal region adjacent to the Basque Country.

Notable individuals with the Murguia surname include Tomás Murguia (1646-1718), a Spanish Baroque painter known for his religious works, and Juan Bautista Murguia (1783-1854), a Spanish military officer and governor of Puerto Rico from 1846 to 1851.

In the 19th century, Adolfo Murguia (1827-1898) was a prominent Mexican lawyer, politician, and diplomat who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs under President Porfirio Díaz. Another notable figure was Manuel Murguia (1833-1923), a Galician writer, historian, and advocate for Galician culture and language revival.

In the 20th century, José Murguia (1927-1997) was a Mexican-American artist and muralist known for his vibrant depictions of Chicano life and culture.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Murguía

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

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

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

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