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

Quijano, 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 Quijano surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Quijano in America

Quijano is the 6628th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Quijano surname appeared 5,110 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 Quijano.

We can also compare 2010 data for Quijano 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 Quijano

The surname Quijano originated in Spain during the medieval period. It is derived from the Spanish word "quijano," which means "jawbone" or "cheekbone." This name likely referred to a distinctive facial feature of an early bearer, which was then adopted as a hereditary surname.

The Quijano name can be traced back to the region of Castile in central Spain. Some of the earliest recorded instances of the surname appear in documents from the 13th and 14th centuries in towns and villages around the cities of Valladolid and Burgos.

In the late 15th century, the name gained prominence with the birth of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the famed Spanish author who wrote the novel "Don Quixote de la Mancha." The protagonist of this literary masterpiece was given the name Alonso Quijano, which may have been inspired by the author's familiarity with the Quijano surname.

One of the earliest known bearers of the Quijano name was Juan Quijano, a Spanish soldier who fought in the Reconquista against the Moors in the 13th century. Another notable figure was Pedro Quijano, a 14th-century nobleman and landowner from the city of Burgos.

In the 16th century, the Quijano family produced several prominent members, including Diego Quijano, a respected jurist and legal scholar who served as a judge in the Spanish royal courts during the reign of King Philip II.

During the colonial era, some Quijano families migrated to Spanish territories in the Americas, particularly to regions like Mexico and Colombia. One such individual was Hernán Quijano, a conquistador who accompanied Hernán Cortés in the conquest of Mexico in the early 16th century.

As the Quijano surname spread throughout Spain and its colonies, variations in spelling emerged, such as Quixano and Quijana. However, the original form of Quijano remained the most common.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Quijano

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

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

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

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