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

Vazquez Rivera, 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 Vazquez Rivera surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Vazquez Rivera in America

Vazquez Rivera is the 120187th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Vazquez Rivera surname appeared 144 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 Vazquez Rivera.

The history of the last name Vazquez Rivera

The surname VAZQUEZRIVERA is a double-barreled Spanish surname with origins traced to the Iberian Peninsula. The first part, Vazquez, derives from the medieval Basque personal name Velasco, a diminutive form of the Latin name Blasius. The second component, Rivera, is a toponymic surname referring to someone who lived near a riverbank, originating from the Spanish word "ribera" meaning river bank or shore.

This compound surname likely emerged during the era of the Reconquista, the period of intermittent conflicts between Christian and Muslim forces on the Iberian Peninsula from the 8th to 15th centuries. As populations intermixed and intermarried, it became common practice to combine paternal and maternal surnames, resulting in double-barreled names like VAZQUEZRIVERA.

One of the earliest recorded instances of a similar surname can be found in the Becerro de Behetrias, a medieval census document from the 14th century, where the name Vazquez de Ribera is mentioned. This suggests that the amalgamated form VAZQUEZRIVERA may have its roots in that time period.

Notable individuals with the surname VAZQUEZRIVERA include Miguel Vazquez Rivera (1766-1840), a Spanish politician and military officer who fought in the Peninsular War against Napoleon's forces. Juan Vazquez Rivera (1872-1943) was a Cuban writer and journalist known for his contributions to the modernist literary movement.

In the 20th century, Manuel Vazquez Rivera (1905-1995) was a prominent Mexican artist, renowned for his murals and paintings depicting indigenous Mexican culture and traditions. Rosa Vazquez Rivera (1909-1987) was a Spanish author and poet, whose works often explored themes of social injustice and the plight of women in her time.

One of the most notable bearers of the surname was Rigoberto Vazquez Rivera (1937-2003), a Puerto Rican baseball player who played in the Major Leagues for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Cleveland Indians in the 1960s and 1970s.

While the surname VAZQUEZRIVERA is primarily concentrated in Spain, Mexico, and other Latin American countries, it has also spread to other parts of the world through migration and diaspora communities.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Vazquez Rivera

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

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

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

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