Guevara
A Spanish surname most often tied to the Basque place-name Guevara in Álava, later famous in noble and compound forms like Ladrón de Guevara.
The #746 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 6,646 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Guevara is generally understood as a habitational surname, originally meaning someone from the place called Guevara in Álava, in the Basque Country of northern Spain. The place-name is usually treated as Basque in origin, though older scholarship does not always agree on the precise root meaning. In surname use, it became a hereditary family name and also appears in the compound form Ladrón de Guevara.
History
The name is associated with an old noble line in Spain, and historical writers often mention the Guevaras as an established house from the medieval period onward. Later Spanish naming practice produced compound surnames such as Ladrón de Guevara, which helped keep the family name prominent in historical records. The surname spread widely in the Spanish-speaking world and is now common in Latin America and among Hispanic communities elsewhere.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older writers sometimes note that the Guevaras were once referred to by an earlier family name, Velas, before the hereditary surname Guevara was fully established.
From the historical record
“cos personas a quienes se dió apellido por alguna accion ilustre o algun grande servicio hecho al Estado, como Maza, Cabeza de Vaca, Machuca, Ladron de Guevara; finalmente, los judios i moros convertidos adoptaron los de sus padrinos, o de las personas que los bautizaban, o VIIT”
— Diccionario de los apellidos