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

Peres, 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 Peres surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Peres in America

Peres is the 6420th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Peres surname appeared 5,294 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 Peres.

We can also compare 2010 data for Peres 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 Peres

The surname PERES is of Portuguese origin and can be traced back to the late 15th century. It is derived from the old Portuguese word "pera," meaning pear, suggesting that the name may have originally referred to a person who cultivated or sold pears. The name was particularly common in the regions of northern Portugal, near the city of Braga.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the PERES surname is found in a Portuguese census record from the year 1497, listing a family of that name residing in the town of Guimarães. Around the same time, there is mention of a merchant named Álvaro PERES who traded in pears and other fruits between Portugal and Spain.

In the 16th century, the PERES name appears in several legal documents and property records from the cities of Porto and Lisbon. One notable figure was João PERES, a renowned architect who was responsible for designing several churches and monasteries in Lisbon during the late 1500s.

As Portuguese explorers and settlers began to venture across the globe, the PERES surname spread to various colonies and territories. In the 17th century, there are records of a family named PERES among the early Portuguese settlers in Brazil, who established themselves in the region of Pernambuco.

One of the most famous individuals with the PERES surname was Shimon PERES (1923-2016), an Israeli statesman and politician who served as the ninth President of Israel from 2007 to 2014. Born in Poland, his family had originally adopted the name PERES when they immigrated to what was then British-mandated Palestine in the 1920s.

Other notable figures with the PERES surname include Tomás PERES (1634-1701), a Spanish-born painter who achieved great success in colonial Mexico during the late 17th century, and José PERES (1919-1998), a renowned Portuguese poet and literary critic.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the PERES name continued to appear in various records across Portugal and its former colonies, with families bearing this surname found in regions such as the Azores Islands and Mozambique. Today, the PERES surname remains prevalent in Portugal, Brazil, and other Portuguese-speaking countries, as well as among Jewish communities with roots in Portugal.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Peres

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

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

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

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