Hoyos
A Spanish surname from hoyo, meaning a hollow, pit, or small depression in the ground.
The #8,865 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 83,580 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Hoyos comes from Spanish hoyo, “hole,” “pit,” or “hollow,” ultimately from Latin follis through the same Romance development seen in Spanish place- and field-names. As a surname, it would most naturally have begun as a locational name for someone who lived by a hollow, ditch, or low-lying place, or from a place called Hoyos. The form is the plural of hoyo, so the name literally means “the hollows” or “the pits.”
History
The surname is well established in the Spanish-speaking world and is especially common in Spain and Latin America. It may arise independently in several places, since Hoyos is also a frequent place-name in Spanish regions. Historical surname lists sometimes record related forms such as Rehoyos or Regoyos, which suggest the same root in local naming.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Spanish hoyos can mean not only natural hollows in the ground, but also small pits or dimples in everyday use.
From the historical record
“Hostes. Anticuado, huestes. Anticuado, enemigos. Hoyos. Concavidades u honduras formadas naturalmen- te en la tierra o hechas de intento. Concavidad que se hace en alguna superficie. “epultura. Hoyuelos. Hoyos pequeños. Ciertos juegos de mucha- chos.”
— Diccionario de los apellidos