Del Rio
A Spanish and Italian-style surname meaning “of the river,” originally a place-based name.
The #3,620 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 31,460 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Del Rio is a toponymic surname built from Spanish and Italian del, meaning “of the,” plus rio/rio, “river.” It would originally have identified someone who lived by a river or came from a place called Río or Rio. In some cases it may reflect a specific locality rather than a literal riverside dwelling.
History
The surname appears in Romance-language naming traditions, especially in Spanish-speaking and Italian-speaking areas, and was later carried abroad through migration to the Americas. In records outside the Iberian and Italian worlds, it is often treated as a fixed family name rather than a still-transparent phrase.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because it literally reads like a phrase, Del Rio is one of those surnames that can look more like a place description than a family name.