Haro
A surname usually linked to a place name, most famously the Spanish city of Haro in La Rioja.
The #3,122 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 26,738 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname is most naturally explained as a habitational name, referring to someone from Haro, a town in northern Spain. The place-name itself is ancient, though the exact pre-Romance origin is not certain from the excerpts provided. In surname use, it would originally have meant simply "from Haro."
History
The name is best known in Spanish and Hispanic contexts, and it may also appear in records outside Spain through migration. The excerpts also show the French noun haro, the old Norman legal cry, but that is a different word and is not the same as the Spanish surname origin. Because the surname is relatively uncommon in English-language records, some bearers may also reflect later immigration or spelling variation.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The very similar French expression "crier haro sur quelqu’un" comes from an old Norman legal cry, but that is unrelated to the Spanish place-name surname.
From the historical record
“Harmens Haro, Hare, m. ; Haren, Haringa, Harringa, fam. n. Harrell, Harle, m. Hayo, m. ; Hayung, Heyungs,”
— British Family Names: their origin and meaning (2nd ed.)