Camargo
A surname likely taken from a Spanish place-name, especially the town and valley of Camargo in Cantabria.
The #3,689 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 32,074 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Camargo is best understood as a locational surname, referring to someone from the place called Camargo in northern Spain. The place-name is ancient, and its deeper origin is obscure; older scholarship often treats it as pre-Roman or otherwise uncertain rather than explaining it from a transparent Spanish word. In surname use, it would originally have meant simply “the person from Camargo.”
History
The surname would have developed in Spain as people were identified by their home village or district. It later spread through the Spanish-speaking world, especially to the Americas, through migration and colonial settlement. Today it is found in both Spain and Latin America, and also appears in the United States through Hispanic family lines.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Camargo is also the name of a municipality and valley in Cantabria, which gives the surname a very specific geographic anchor.
From the historical record
“Calatañazor (Caltañazoi-), Calatrava, Calera, Cale- ro, Calomarde, Calzada, Calleja, Callejo, Camaleño, Cámara , Camargo , Camba, Camino , Campana , Campmani, Campo, Campomanes, Campos, Cam- prodon, Camprovin, Camps, Campuzano, Camuñas, Canalejas, Canales, Cancela, Cáncer, Cancio, Can- dado, Candamo, Cañellas…”
— Ensayo histórico etimológico filológico sobre los apellidos castellanos