Barriga
A Spanish surname that most likely began as a nickname for someone with a prominent belly or rounded build.
The #6,426 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 58,408 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Barriga is the Spanish word for “belly” or “stomach,” and the surname almost certainly began as a descriptive nickname. In older surname practice, a visible physical trait could become a hereditary family name, and the historical excerpts explicitly group Barriga with other body-based nicknames. The word itself is common Spanish vocabulary, so the surname is transparent in meaning even if the exact moment it became hereditary is unknown.
History
The excerpts suggest Barriga was already recognized in Spain as a surname of nickname origin by the 19th and early 20th century. Such surnames often spread through the Spanish-speaking world with migration and colonial expansion, which helps explain its later presence in Latin America and the United States. Because the name is semantically obvious, it likely arose independently in more than one family line.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century source jokes that Barriga was a common surname derived from “abdominal opulence,” showing how plainly its nickname sense was understood.
From the historical record
“ordinario en la familia, como Vicente, Martin, Manuel, Domingo, i talvez de aluun mote o apodo que pasaba de padres a hijos, como Piernas, Barriga, Molinillo, Raposo, Guisado, Lanceta, Navaja, Puñal, Grasa, Manteca, Maja- granzas: aquellos, de la edad, de los defectos corporales, de las buenas o malas cualidades i…”
— Diccionario de los apellidos