Burgos
A surname of place origin, most likely referring to the Spanish city of Burgos, or more broadly to a person from a town or borough called Burgos.
The #1,411 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 12,267 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname is locational: it points to the city of Burgos in Old Castile, Spain. The place-name itself is commonly connected with a fortified place or hill-town, from a root seen in related Romance forms for 'castle' or 'fortress.' In older surname collections, Burgos is treated as a surname for someone from that city or, more generally, from a borough or fortified settlement.
History
This name is especially familiar in the history of the Anglo-Norman de Burgo family in Ireland, where the line later became known as the Burkes and, in some branches, adopted Gaelic surnames such as Mac William. The form Burgos can also reflect straightforward Spanish toponymic usage, and the surname is found today in both Hispanic and Anglo-American contexts. Because the excerpts mix a Spanish place-name explanation with references to the de Burgo/Burke family, the surname may have more than one historical channel of formation.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older English genealogical writers linked the Irish Burkes to the Norman de Burgo family, whose descendants were said to have adopted Gaelic names like Mac William in Connacht.
From the historical record
“a representative of a borough in parliament. BURGOS. Local. A city of Spain, in Old Castile, situated beside a hill, on the river Arlanzon. BURGOYNE. Local From Bourgogne, now Burgundy, an old province of France. A name given to a native of that province. BURKE. A corruption of (De) Burgo, as the name was for-…”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names