Casares
A Spanish surname from a place-name meaning a cluster of houses or small settlement.
The #7,702 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 71,651 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Casares is a Spanish habitational surname, ultimately from casa, “house.” In older Spanish place-name formation, words like casas and casares could refer to a group of houses, a small rural settlement, or a site marked by houses. The surname therefore originally meant someone from a place called Casares or from a similar locality built around houses.
History
The historical excerpt places Casares among a wide set of Spanish surnames formed from place-names based on casas and related words. As with many Spanish locative surnames, it likely spread from several independent places called Casares rather than from one single family line. The name remains most strongly associated with Spain and Spanish-speaking communities.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Names built from casa were productive in Spanish place-names, which is why surnames like Casas, Casanova, Casamayor, and Casares appear together in older surname lists.
From the historical record
“estas casas, como del anterior documento apare- ce, nació el nombre colectivo cortes^ como salas^ corrales, casares, villar, coi'tijada, cuadra; y fué adoptado como apellido de localidad desde Gali- Mas en el siMo xvi la acen- * A los caseros de las cortes se les llamaba cortesanos :”
— Ensayo histórico etimológico filológico sobre los apellidos castellanos