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

Oliveira, 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 Oliveira surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Oliveira in America

Oliveira is the 69996th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Oliveira surname appeared 280 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 Oliveira.

We can also compare 2010 data for Oliveira 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 Oliveira

The surname Oliviera is of Portuguese origin, derived from the word "oliveira" which means "olive tree" in Portuguese. This surname likely emerged in Portugal during the Middle Ages, possibly as an occupational name for someone who cultivated or worked with olive trees.

The earliest known record of the name Oliviera dates back to the 13th century in Portugal. In 1256, a document mentions a landowner named Fernão Oliviera in the region of Alentejo. This suggests that the name was already established among the Portuguese nobility or landowners at that time.

In the 14th century, the name appeared in various historical records and manuscripts, such as the "Livro Velho de Linhagens" (Old Book of Lineages), which documented noble Portuguese families. One notable figure from this period was João Oliviera, a knight who fought alongside King João I in the Battle of Aljubarrota in 1385, during the Portuguese-Castilian crisis.

During the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, many Portuguese explorers and settlers carrying the surname Oliviera helped establish colonies and spread the name to other parts of the world, particularly in Brazil and parts of Africa.

One famous bearer of the name was Duarte Oliviera, a Portuguese navigator and explorer born in the late 15th century. He was part of the second Portuguese expedition to Brazil in 1501, led by Gaspar de Lemos, and is credited with naming the island of Fernando de Noronha in the Atlantic Ocean.

Another prominent figure was Fernão de Oliviera, a 16th-century Portuguese grammarian and author, born around 1507. He is considered one of the most important figures in the history of the Portuguese language, known for his work "Gramática da Linguagem Portuguesa" (Grammar of the Portuguese Language), published in 1536.

In the 17th century, the name Oliviera was also found in parts of Spain, possibly due to migration or intermarriage between Portuguese and Spanish families. One example is Miguel de Oliviera, a Spanish Jesuit priest and missionary born in 1612 in Seville, who traveled to South America and worked among indigenous communities in present-day Paraguay and Argentina.

As the Portuguese Empire expanded, the surname Oliviera spread further across the globe, carried by settlers, explorers, and missionaries. Over time, variations of the spelling emerged, such as Oliveira, Olivera, and Oliveres, but all shared the same linguistic roots and historical significance.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Oliveira

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

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

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

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