Araujo
A Portuguese and Spanish surname most likely from a place name, especially tied to Aroujo/Araújo-like localities in Iberia.
The #1,908 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 16,374 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Araujo is generally understood as a habitational surname, formed from the name of a place in the Iberian Peninsula. In Portuguese, the related form is usually written Araújo, and the surname points to someone who came from, or was associated with, such a locality. The ultimate place-name origin is not fully settled in the excerpted material, so the safest reading is simply that it is toponymic.
History
The name is well established in Portugal and Galicia, and it also spread widely through Spain and the Portuguese-speaking world. Later migration carried it to the Americas, where it is especially common in countries with strong Iberian and Lusophone settlement histories. The unaccented spelling Araujo is common outside Portuguese orthography, while Araújo remains standard in Portuguese contexts.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The spelling without the accent, Araujo, is often used in countries where keyboard and official-record conventions dropped Portuguese diacritics.
From the historical record
“llon, Antoñana , Anuncibay i, Añorbe, Apellaniz, Apodaca, Aragoncillo, Arana, Aranaz, Aranda, Arango, Aranguren, Aranzazu, Arañó, Araujo, Arbizu, Arboleya, Arboli, Arbos, Arbues, Arce, Arceniega, Arco, Arconada, Árdales, Ardanaz, Ardila, Arechaga, Arellano, Arenas , Arenillas, Areuzana, Arévalo , Argamasilla …”
— Ensayo histórico etimológico filológico sobre los apellidos castellanos