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

Nogueira, 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 Nogueira surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Nogueira in America

Nogueira is the 15074th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Nogueira surname appeared 1,957 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 Nogueira.

We can also compare 2010 data for Nogueira 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 Nogueira

The surname Nogueira originates from Portugal and is believed to have first emerged in the 12th or 13th century. It is derived from the Portuguese word "nogueira," which means "walnut tree." The name likely referred to someone who lived near a walnut tree or a place where walnut trees grew abundantly.

Nogueira is a toponymic surname, meaning it is derived from a place name. In this case, it may have been taken from one of several towns or villages in Portugal with the name Nogueira or a variation of it, such as Nogueira da Regedoura or Nogueira do Cravo.

The earliest recorded instance of the surname Nogueira can be found in the Livro Velho de Linhagens (Old Book of Lineages), a Portuguese genealogical manuscript from the 13th century. It mentions a nobleman named Mem Rodrigues Nogueira who lived during the reign of King Afonso III (1210-1279).

Another notable early bearer of the surname was João Afonso Nogueira, a Portuguese explorer and navigator who is credited with discovering the Cape Verde Islands in 1460. He was part of the early Portuguese expeditions along the West African coast, organized by Prince Henry the Navigator.

During the Age of Discovery, several Nogueiras were involved in the exploration and colonization of the Americas. One example is Pedro Álvares Nogueira, a Portuguese settler who established a sugar plantation in Brazil in the early 16th century.

In the 17th century, a prominent member of the Nogueira family was Tomás Nogueira, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary who worked in Japan and was martyred in Nagasaki in 1629.

Another notable figure was Manuel Nogueira de Gama, a 19th-century Portuguese nobleman and politician who served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 1827 to 1828.

Throughout history, the Nogueira surname has been found in various spellings, such as Noguera, Nogueyra, and Noguera de Ramoin. It has also been associated with certain place names in Portugal, such as Quinta da Nogueira (Walnut Farm) or Ribeira da Nogueira (Walnut Creek).

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Nogueira

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

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

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

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