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

Rucoba, 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 Rucoba surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Rucoba in America

Rucoba is the 140157th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Rucoba surname appeared 119 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 Rucoba.

The history of the last name Rucoba

The surname RUCOBA is believed to have originated in the Basque region of Spain and France, which straddles the western Pyrenees mountains. The earliest recorded instances of this name date back to the 13th century. Linguistic experts suggest that RUCOBA is derived from the Basque word "ruco," meaning "hill" or "mound," combined with the suffix "-ba," indicating a place or location.

In the medieval period, surnames were often derived from geographic features or the names of places where families resided. This suggests that the RUCOBA surname may have originated among families living in a hilly or mountainous area of the Basque region. However, the precise location or village that gave rise to the name remains uncertain.

One of the earliest documented references to the RUCOBA name is found in a land registry from the village of Zuberoa, in the historical Basque province of Lower Navarre (now part of France), dated 1287. This record mentions a landowner named Petri de Rucoba.

During the 15th century, the RUCOBA surname appears in various municipal records and chronicles from the Basque provinces of Gipuzkoa and Biscay (Bizkaia). Notable individuals from this period include Juan de Rucoba, a prominent merchant from Bilbao who lived from 1435 to 1491.

As the centuries progressed, members of the RUCOBA family dispersed throughout Spain and beyond. In the 16th century, a branch of the family settled in the Spanish colony of New Spain (present-day Mexico). One of the earliest recorded individuals from this lineage was Diego de Rucoba, a soldier and explorer who participated in the conquest of Guatemala under Pedro de Alvarado in the 1520s.

Another notable figure was Rodrigo de Rucoba, a Spanish naval officer and cartographer who served under the famous explorer and navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano in the early 1500s. Elcano was part of the expedition that completed the first circumnavigation of the globe after the death of Ferdinand Magellan.

In the 19th century, a prominent member of the RUCOBA family was Juana de Rucoba y Ochandiano (1812-1890), a wealthy landowner and philanthropist from the Basque province of Álava. She was known for her significant donations to various charitable causes and educational institutions in the region.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Rucoba

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

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 Rucoba 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.

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

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

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