Alvarenga
A Iberian surname most likely tied to a place-name, especially in Portugal or Spain.
The #4,449 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 38,724 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Alvarenga is an Iberian surname that is usually understood as locational, meaning it originally identified someone from a place called Alvarenga or a similar named settlement. Such surnames were often adopted by people who moved away from their home village and were known by their place of origin. The place-name itself is generally taken as old and probably pre-Roman or otherwise obscure in origin, so the deeper literal meaning is not certain.
History
The surname is found in Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking areas and later spread through emigration to the Americas. It is especially familiar in Portuguese-language contexts, including Brazil, where many surnames of local origin became widely established. In modern usage it is most often a hereditary family name rather than an active indicator of geographic origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Alvarenga is also the name of places in Portugal and elsewhere, which is typical of many Iberian locational surnames.
Notable people named Alvarenga
- Guido Alvarenga (b. 1970)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.