España
A surname for someone from Spain, literally “the Spanish one.”
The #8,019 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 74,811 Americans shares it.
Etymology
España is the Spanish word for Spain, from Latin Hispania. As a surname, it would have been used for someone identified as coming from Spain or of Spanish origin. The deeper origin of Hispania is uncertain and was already debated in older scholarship.
History
This surname is relatively uncommon in the United States, where it is likely to have entered through Spanish-speaking families and migration from the Hispanic world. In surname use, place-name forms like España typically began as identifying labels for an outsider or newcomer from that country. The historical sources here mainly support the basic meaning “one from Spain,” rather than a more detailed family-history trail.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older writers often linked the name Hispania with a Phoenician word for rabbits, but that explanation is considered speculative.
From the historical record
“SPAIN (A.-Lat.-?Phoen.) One from Spain, the Span. Espana, Lat. Hispania (Gr. Spania, sirai/fa) [usually said to have been named by the Phoenicians from the rabbits which”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)