Casas
A Spanish surname meaning “houses,” usually a habitational name for someone from a house site or settlement.
The #1,813 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 15,611 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Casas is the Spanish plural of casa, meaning “house,” from Latin casa, “hut” or “cottage.” As a surname, it likely began as a topographic or habitational name for someone living by notable houses, a house site, or a place identified by houses. In older Iberian records, such forms could also point to a solar house or ancestral seat.
History
The name appears in Spanish and Spanish-American usage and is especially familiar in the form Las Casas, as in Bartolomé de las Casas. Historical surname writers also treated Casas as part of a broader Spanish pattern of names drawn from places, houses, and estates. In genealogy records it may sometimes reflect a shortened or adapted form of de las Casas.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same root appears in many place-names and family names across the Romance languages, including Italian della Casa / Casa and Spanish Las Casas.
From the historical record
“or Cary, of the same co., emigrated to N. E. circa 1637. CASAS, de las (Sp.), of the Houses, {v. Cazenove.) CASTELLO, di (Jt.), of Castle. Castelletto, del, of the Little castle. Castelcicala, Cricket's castle. Castelnovo, New castle. Castelnau, and Castelnouvel, de {£.), of Newcastle. Castillejo, de (Sp.), of…”
— Surnames