Enciso
A Spanish surname likely taken from a place name, ultimately linked to a landscape feature or locality called Enciso.
The #7,157 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 66,056 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Enciso is best understood as a Spanish toponymic surname, meaning it originally identified someone from a place called Enciso. The excerpted historical material places it among Spanish surnames formed from locality names, rather than as a descriptive nickname or occupation. The deeper place-name root is not certain from the provided sources alone, but it belongs to the wider Spanish pattern of surnames taken from towns, estates, and geographic sites.
History
The name is especially associated with Spain, where it would have begun as a locational byname and later become hereditary. It appears in colonial and later Hispanic contexts as Spanish-speaking families carried the surname abroad. The excerpted text also shows the surname being treated as a standard inherited family name in historical writing.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Enciso is also the name of a town in La Rioja, Spain, which may be one of the places behind the surname.
From the historical record
“á concurrir juntos aquel dia en el escuadrón volante, aun- que de diversas compañías , Hernando Diaz y Eoque de Enciso ; destos el primero pasó años antes en busca de un hermano suyo, de quien jamás pudo tener noticia ; resuelto de la conversación de aquel dia , conocer ser Enciso el her- mano que buscaba , que…”
— Ensayo histórico etimológico filológico sobre los apellidos castellanos