Cervantes
A Spanish surname most likely tied to a place name, carried by one of Spain’s greatest writers.
The #387 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 3,758 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Cervantes is generally treated as a Spanish habitational surname, meaning originally “from Cervantes” or “of Cervantes.” The place-name itself is usually connected with an older regional word or Latin-based formation, but the exact root is not firmly settled in the excerpts available here. In practice, the surname simply points back to a family’s association with a place bearing that name.
History
The name is strongly associated with Spain and became internationally familiar through Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the author of Don Quixote. It later spread widely through the Spanish-speaking world and, by modern migration, into the United States. Historical scholarship in the supplied excerpts mentions the name mainly in passing rather than giving a full etymology.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Miguel de Cervantes is so famous that his surname is often instantly recognized even by people who know little else about Spanish literature.
From the historical record
“Pelayo, Roderick, Alphonsus, Alphonso, Ferdinand, Isa- bella, Ximinez, Gonsalvo De Cordova, Vasquez, Quevedo, Quintana, Zurita, Murillo, Calderon, Cervantes, Saavedra, Quesada, Don Carlos. (Italian.)”
— A Grammar of American Surnames