Arguelles
A Spanish surname most often linked to a place-name or landscape word, though its exact origin is debated in older scholarship.
The #6,932 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 63,830 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Older writers tried to connect Arguelles with a local Asturian or Leonese place-name and with Latin roots referring to fields, orchards, or similar landscape features. One historical explanation in the excerpts links it to a plural form built from a word related to the Spanish/Latin root for “tree,” suggesting a meaning like “little groves” or “places with trees,” but this is presented as a learned guess rather than settled fact. The surname is therefore best treated as a toponymic or landscape-based name of uncertain exact derivation.
History
The name is associated especially with Asturias and northern Spain, where many surnames grew from village names, local features, or old territorial designations. The excerpts show 19th-century scholars debating the form and origin, which suggests the name was already established and regional by that time. It later spread beyond Spain through emigration, including to the Americas.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The old scholarship cited here treats Arguelles as part of a small cluster of northern Spanish surnames that were being argued over by etymologists, not just genealogists.
From the historical record
“3 A esta clase de apellidos habrían de cori'esponder Ar- guello, Arguelles, Arboli j Zeballos, si son ciertas las si- guientes etimologías que con plena convicción expone el P. Sarmiento : « Leí un privilegio de la abadía de Arbas, la cual está en las montañas de León. Su nombre latino es de Arbis, aludiendo á…”
— Ensayo histórico etimológico filológico sobre los apellidos castellanos