Colunga
A Spanish surname most likely taken from the town of Colunga in Asturias, northern Spain.
The #7,232 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 66,886 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Colunga is best understood as a habitational surname, meaning “from Colunga,” a place-name in Asturias, Spain. Such surnames were commonly adopted by people who moved away from their home town and were identified by their place of origin. The place-name itself is ancient, and its deeper root is not fully certain.
History
The surname would have arisen in Spain and later spread through migration to Latin America and, eventually, to the United States. Because it is tied to a specific place name, unrelated families can share the surname without being closely related. Modern bearers are especially likely to be found in Spanish-speaking communities with ancestral links to northern Spain or to later Iberian migration routes.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Colunga is also the name of a municipality on the northern coast of Asturias, famous for its coastal scenery and prehistory sites nearby.