De la Vega
A Spanish locational surname meaning “from the meadow” or “from the lowland,” originally pointing to someone who came from a place called Vega.
The #9,661 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 91,889 Americans shares it.
Etymology
De la Vega is a Spanish surname built from de la, meaning “from the,” and vega, a word for a fertile plain, meadow, or low-lying stretch of land near water. The literal sense is “from the meadow/lowland,” and it originally identified a person from a place named Vega or La Vega. Surnames of this type are common throughout the Spanish-speaking world and often began as toponymic labels rather than fixed family names.
History
The surname is associated with Spain and, through Spanish migration, became established across Latin America and later in the United States. Many families simplified the spelling to Delavega or kept the preposition separate as De la Vega, and both forms may appear in records. The name is also familiar from historical and literary usage, which helped keep it recognizable even outside Spain.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Vega is a very common place-name element in Spanish-speaking regions, so unrelated families from different “Vegas” could independently end up with the same surname.