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

Tierra, 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 Tierra surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Tierra in America

Tierra is the 113155th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Tierra surname appeared 155 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 Tierra.

We can also compare 2010 data for Tierra 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 Tierra

The surname Tierra originates from Spain and can be traced back to the late 15th century. It is derived from the Spanish word "tierra," which means "earth" or "land." The name likely referred to someone who owned or worked on a large estate or tract of land.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the surname Tierra appears in the Archivo General de Indias, a collection of documents from the Spanish colonial archives in Seville, Spain. In a document dated 1537, a certain Juan de Tierra is mentioned as a settler in the Spanish colony of Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti).

Another early reference to the name Tierra can be found in the Cartulario de Valpuesta, a medieval cartulary (collection of charters and records) from the monastery of Santa María de Valpuesta in the province of Burgos, Spain. The cartulary, which dates back to the 10th century, mentions a landowner named Rodrigo Tierra in a charter from the year 1074.

In the 16th century, a notable individual bearing the surname Tierra was Pedro de Tierra, a Spanish navigator and explorer who accompanied Ferdinand Magellan on his famous circumnavigation of the globe from 1519 to 1522. Pedro de Tierra was born around 1480 and served as the chief pilot of Magellan's fleet.

Another prominent figure with the surname Tierra was Juan de Tierra, a Spanish conquistador who participated in the conquest of Mexico alongside Hernán Cortés in the early 16th century. Juan de Tierra was born in Seville around 1495 and played a crucial role in several battles against the Aztecs.

In the 17th century, the surname Tierra was associated with a notable family from the Spanish region of Extremadura. One member of this family, Rodrigo de Tierra y Contreras (1599-1676), was a prominent lawyer and judge who served as a member of the Council of the Indies, the highest governing body for Spain's overseas territories.

Throughout the centuries, the surname Tierra has also been found in various Spanish placenames, such as Tierra de Barros (a region in Extremadura), Tierra de Campos (a region in the provinces of Valladolid, Zamora, and Palencia), and Tierra Estella (a region in Navarre).

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Tierra

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

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

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

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