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

Pablo, 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 Pablo surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Pablo in America

Pablo is the 5384th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Pablo surname appeared 6,462 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 2 people would have the surname Pablo.

We can also compare 2010 data for Pablo 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 Pablo

The surname Pablo originated from Spain during medieval times. It is derived from the Latin name Paulus, which was originally a Roman family name meaning "small" or "humble." The name was Hispanicized to Pablo as it spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula.

Pablo first appeared in historical records in the 8th century, during the Muslim conquest of Spain. It gained prominence as a Christian name during the Reconquista, the period when Christian kingdoms reclaimed control of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors between the 8th and 15th centuries.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the surname Pablo can be found in the Libro de las Behetrías, a 14th-century Castilian manuscript that documented landholdings and taxation. The name was also present in the Catastro de Ensenada, a census-like document from the 18th century that catalogued the population and wealth of Spain.

The surname Pablo has been associated with several notable figures throughout history. One of the earliest was Pablo de Santa María (1350-1435), a Jewish convert to Christianity who became Bishop of Burgos and a prominent figure in the Spanish Inquisition. Another was Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), the world-renowned Spanish painter and co-founder of the Cubist movement.

Other notable individuals with the surname Pablo include Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), the Chilean poet and diplomat who won the Nobel Prize in Literature; Pablo Escobar (1949-1993), the notorious Colombian drug lord and narco-terrorist; and Pablo Casals (1876-1973), the celebrated Catalan cellist and conductor.

While the surname Pablo originated in Spain, it has since spread to other Spanish-speaking countries, particularly in Latin America, due to the influence of Spanish colonization and migration. It remains a common surname throughout the Hispanic world.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Pablo

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

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

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

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