List of most common surnames in South America

This is a list of the most common surnames in South America.

Argentina

Most surnames are of Spanish descent, but due to large Italian immigration (approximately 37% of Argentines have Italian ancestry), there are also several surnames of Italian origin like Ferrari, Rossi, Russo.

Rank[1]	Surname	#	Pop. %
1	Fernández	568.240	1,472%
2	Rodríguez	483.212	1,252%
3	González	426.253	1,104%
4	García	411.462	1,066%
5	López	393.704	1,020%
6	Martínez	346.271	0,897%
7	Pérez	336.094	0,870%
8	Álvarez	294.527	0,763%
9	Gómez	290.821	0,753%
10	Sánchez	271.351	0,703%
11	Díaz	256.397	0,664%
12	Vásquez	187.974	0,487%
13	Castro	173.055	0,448%
14	Romero	166.497	0,431%
15	Suárez	160.483	0,415%
16	Blanco	154.248	0,399%
17	Ruiz	140.829	0,364%
18	Alonso	135.893	0,352%
19	Torres	133.599	0,346%
20	Domínguez	132.625	0,343%
21	Gutiérrez	130.607	0,338%
22	Sosa	129.372	0,335%
23	Iglesias	126.822	0,328%
24	Giménez	125.009	0,323%
25	Ramírez	124.550	0,322%
26	Martín	123.938	0,321%
27	Varela	119.674	0,310%
28	Ramos	118.825	0,307%
29	Núnez	118.106	0,306%
30	Rossi	116.775	0,302%
31	Silva	107.835	0,279%
32	Méndez	104.668	0,271%
33	Hernández	104.581	0,270%
34	Flores	100.092	0,261%
35	Pereyra	99.884	0,258%
36	Ferrari	98.761	0,255%
37	Ortiz	96.761	0,250%
38	Medina	96.228	0,249%
39	Benítez	95.628	0,247%
40	Herrera	94.781	0,245%
41	Arias	94.537	0,245%
42	Acosta	92.707	0,240%
43	Moreno	92.127	0,238%
44	Aguirre	91.365	0,236%
45	Otero	89.583	0,232%
46	Cabrera	88.398	0,229%
47	Rey	88.394	0,229%
48	Rojas	81.343	0,210%
49	Vidal	80.233	0,207%
50	Molina	80.050	0,207%
51	Russo	79.882	0,206%
52	Paz	75.365	0,195%
53	Vega	74.107	0,192%
54	Costa	73.932	0,191%
55	Bruno	73.907	0,191%
56	Romano	73.458	0,190%
57	Morales	71.587	0,185%
58	Ríos	71.534	0,185%
59	Miranda	70.713	0,183%
60	Muñoz	70.092	0,181%
61	Franco	70.055	0,181%
62	Castillo	69.720	0,180%
63	Campos	69.447	0,179%
64	Bianchi	68.510	0,177%
65	Luna	66.763	0,172%
66	Correa	66.535	0,172%
67	Ferreyra	66.461	0,172%
68	Navarro	66.457	0,172%
69	Quiroga	66.138	0,171%
70	Colombo	65.375	0,169%
71	Cohen	63.575	0,164%
72	Pereyra	63.367	0,163%
73	Vera	63.226	0,163%
74	Lorenzo	63.157	0,163%
75	Gil	62.727	0,162%
76	Santos	60.580	0,156%
77	Delgado	59.333	0,154%
78	Godoy	58.956	0,152%
79	Rivas	58.811	0,151%
80	Rivero	58.604	0,151%
81	Gallo	57.990	0,149%
82	Peralta	57.192	0,148%
83	Soto	55.633	0,144%
84	Figueroa	55.515	0,143%
85	Juárez	55.310	0,143%
86	Marino	54.806	0,142%
87	Ponce	54.009	0,139%
88	Calvo	52.282	0,135%
89	Ibáñez	51.972	0,134%
90	Cáceres	51.493	0,133%
91	Carrizo	50.657	0,131%
92	Vargas	50.613	0,131%
93	Mendoza	50.588	0,131%
94	Aguilar	49.717	0,128%
95	Ledesma	49.645	0,128%
96	Guzmán	49.543	0,128%
97	Soria	49.291	0,127%
98	Villalba	48.602	0,125%
99	Prieto	48.355	0,125%
100	Maldonado	47.344	0,122%
First 100		11.632.320	30,093%
Total pop. (2005 est.)		38.592.150	100,000%

Brazil

Most of the surnames of the Brazilian population have a Portuguese origin, due to Portuguese colonization in the country (it is estimated that 80% of the Brazilian population has at least one Portuguese ancestor), while other South American countries were largely colonized by the Spanish. However, due to historical immigration, there are also surnames of African, Arabic, Italian, German, Japanese, and Spanish origin. 2010 data:

Rank	Surname	Share of Brazilian population (in number of inhabitants)	#	Origin
1	Silva	10,4%	20,882,120	Portuguese
2	Santos	6,7%	13,433,982	Portuguese/Spanish
3	Sousa	4,9%	9,810,832	Portuguese
4	Oliveira	3,1%	6,209,493	Portuguese
5	Pereira	2,9%	5,892,937	Portuguese
6	Lima	2,5%	5,007,393	Portuguese
7	Carvalho	2,33%	4,630,387	Portuguese
8	Ferreira	2,29%	4,590,010	Portuguese
9	Rodrigues		4,510,002	Portuguese/Spanish
10	Almeida	2,16%	4,393,398	Portuguese
11	Costa	1,94%	3,905,800	Portuguese
12	Gomes	1,92%	3,848,000	Portuguese/Spanish
13	Martins	1,83%	3,650,200	Portuguese
14	Araújo	1,69%	3,320,780	Portuguese
15	Melo		3,209,000	Portuguese
16	Barbosa	1,52%	3,040,300	Portuguese/Spanish
17	Ribeiro	1,503%	3,010,000	Portuguese
18	Alves	1,48%	2,960,500	Portuguese/Spanish
19	Cardoso	1,41%	2,830,120	Portuguese
20	Schmitz or Schmidt	1,33%	2,673,000	German
21	Rocha	1,27%	2,540,600	Portuguese
22	Correia, Correa	1,25%	2,505,070	Portuguese/Spanish
23	Dias	1,23%	2,467,000	Portuguese/Spanish
24	Teixeira	1,2%	2,408,500	Portuguese
25	Fernandes	1,195%	2,379,700	Portuguese/Spanish
26	Azevedo	1,192%	2,370,000	Portuguese
27	Cavalcante or Cavalcanti	1,188%	2,366,300	Italian
28	Montes	1,183%	2,362,000	Portuguese/Spanish
29	Morais			Portuguese
30	Gonçalves	1,174%	2,348,000	Portuguese/Spanish
First 30		64,6%	128,695,910	—

Chile

All surnames are Spanish in origin, with quite a few of them being Basque (e.g. Araya or Zúñiga)

# Either 1st or 2nd surname Persons[2] 1 González 741,388 2 Muñoz 578,673 3 Rojas 413,897 4 Díaz 410,802 5 Pérez 326,867 6 Soto 298,062 7 Contreras 276,887 8 Silva 259,950 9 Martínez 252,966 10 Sepúlveda 251,078 11 Morales 248,448 12 Rodríguez 243,695 13 López 240,181 14 Fuentes 228,609 15 Hernández 226,848 16 Torres 226,480 17 Araya 224,232 18 Flores 221,231 19 Espinoza 219,375 20 Valenzuela 215,025 21 Castillo 213,321 22 Ramírez 211,191 23 Reyes 208,752 24 Gutiérrez 201,734 25 Castro 199,508 26 Vargas 198,471 27 Álvarez 193,002 28 Vásquez 189,946 29 Tapia 179,905 30 Fernández 179,246 31 Sánchez 178,615 32 Carrasco 172,877 33 Gómez 172,758 34 Cortés 171,370 35 Herrera 170,309 36 Núñez 165,806 37 Jara 161,085 38 Vergara 155,118 39 Rivera 147,835 40 Figueroa 145,460 41 Riquelme 143,590 42 García 142,002 43 Miranda 138,939 44 Bravo 138,392 45 Vera 137,646 46 Molina 131,094 47 Vega 128,132 48 Campos 126,260 49 Sandoval 125,640 50 Orellana 123,619 51 Zúñiga 120,757 52 Olivares 120,074 53 Alarcón 118,019 54 Gallardo 117,752 55 Ortiz 117,228 56 Garrido 115,109 57 Salazar 113,881 58 Guzmán 109,922 59 Henríquez 109,364 60 Saavedra 108,702 61 Navarro 107,897 62 Aguilera 107,864 63 Parra 106,100 64 Romero 105,597 65 Aravena 105,441 66 Pizarro 105,352 67 Godoy 103,887 68 Peña 103,377 69 Cáceres 102,830 70 Leiva 99,890 71 Escobar 97,979 72 Yáñez 96,589 73 Valdés 96,528 74 Vidal 96,037 75 Salinas 94,110 76 Cárdenas 93,925 77 Jiménez 92,032 78 Ruiz 91,539 79 Lagos 91,024 80 Maldonado 89,091 81 Bustos 88,445 82 Medina 87,578 83 Pino 86,295 84 Palma 82,735 85 Moreno 82,548 86 Sanhueza 82,383 87 Carvajal 81,785 88 Navarrete 81,729 89 Sáez 80,938 90 Alvarado 79,985 91 Donoso 79,855 92 Poblete 79,248 93 Bustamante 78,732 94 Toro 78,659 95 Ortega 78,086 96 Venegas 76,900 97 Guerrero 76,823 98 Paredes 75,825 99 Farías 75,242 100 San Martín 74,575 Top 100 15,802,580

# 1st surname % of population[3] 1 González 2.1 2 Muñoz 1.6 3 Rojas 1.2 4 Díaz 1.2 5 Pérez 0.9 6 Soto 0.8 7 Contreras 0.8 8 Silva 0.7 9 Martínez 0.7 10 Sepúlveda 0.7 Top 10 10.7

Note: The source (Civil Registry and Identification Service) does not mention the reference year (it was published in 2008) or whether the count includes only the first surname or both surnames (Chile uses two surnames, but the second one is rarely mentioned). It is assumed the first table refers to both surnames (it is unknown if people having the same first and second surname are counted once or twice) and the second table to the first surname only. It is also unclear whether Chileans living abroad were counted, although it is probable that those that were born in Chile were included, as they were registered at birth.

Colombia

All names in the list are of Spanish origin (2010 data).

#	Surname	People
1	Rodríguez	707,789
2	Gómez	537,843
3	González	531,484
4	Martínez	530,721
5	García	524,835
6	López	509,880
7	Hernández	454,471
8	Sánchez	449,750
9	Ramírez	427,404
10	Pérez	418,660
11	Díaz	388,419
12	Muñoz	293,759
13	Rojas	286,038
14	Moreno	265,374
15	Jiménez	261,391

Source: National Civil Registry (2010)^[4]

Paraguay

The list of most common surnames in Paraguay, reflected in the national voters register, shows the influence of Castilian Spanish in the Paraguayan society.

Eight of the top 11 surnames end with "ez", the distinctive suffix of Castilian family names. The suffix "ez" means "son of"; thus, González means "son of Gonzalo", Benítez is "son of Benito" and Martínez means "son of Martín". This is similar to the suffix "son" in English (Johnson, "son of John", Jackson, "son of Jack") and to "ic" or "ich" of Slavic names such as Ivanovich ("son of Ivan").

Rank[5]	%	Surname	Origin
1	6.62	González	Spanish
2	4.84	Benítez	Spanish
3	4.18	Martínez	Spanish
4	3.13	López	Spanish
5	2.61	Giménez	Spanish
6	2.54	Vera	Spanish
7	2.08	Duarte	Spanish
8	2.05	Ramírez	Spanish
9	2.01	Villalba	Spanish
10	1.94	Fernández	Spanish
11	1.81	Gómez	Spanish
12	1.78	Acosta	Spanish
13	1.76	Rojas	Spanish
14	1.69	Ortiz	Spanish
15	1.68	Cáceres	Spanish
16	1.58	Rodríguez	Spanish
17	1.57	Ruíz	Spanish
18	1.54	Núñez	Spanish
19	1.48	Ayala	Spanish
20	1.46	Báez	Spanish
21	1.39	Galeano	Spanish
22	1.34	Ferreira	Spanish
23	1.27	Franco	German
24	1.25	Torres	Spanish
25	1.25	Cardozo	Spanish

All surnames are of Spanish origin, except when noted.

Suriname

Rank[6]	Surname
1	Tjon
2	Pinas
3	Wong
4	Chin
5	Mohan
6	Kalloe
7	Singh
8	Lie
9	van Dijk
10	Tjin

See also

• Lists of most common surnames, for other continents

References

1. "Top Surnames Argentina". . Retrieved 5 March 2010. External link in |publisher= (help) (Broken Link - not trustwothy)
2. "TRES MILLONES DE CHILENOS FIGURAN CON LOS APELLIDOS MÁS COMUNES". Terra Networks. 22 July 2008. Archived from the original on 23 July 2008.
3. ""González, Muñoz y Rojas son los apellidos más comunes en Chile", La Tercera, page 22, Sunday, November 15, 2009.
4. Los apellidos más comunes en Colombia, Nuestra Huella, número 46, 1 December 2010
5. "Los apellidos más comunes en el padrón que se usará en abril" (PDF) (in Spanish). . Retrieved March 24, 2008. External link in |publisher= (help)
6. "The Top 10 most common surnames in Suriname". Retrieved 28 February 2016.