Linares
A Spanish surname from several place names called Linares, ultimately linked to flax fields or a boundary line.
The #1,820 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 15,682 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Linares is a Spanish habitational surname taken from places named Linares. The name is usually connected with Spanish lino, “flax,” and with the plural form meaning “flax fields” or land planted with flax. Some historical writers also related it to linde, “boundary” or “border line,” so the surname may in some cases reflect a place-name with either sense.
History
The surname spread widely in the Spanish-speaking world through people identified by origin from one of several towns or districts named Linares, especially in Spain and later in Latin America. It is common enough to be found across the modern Spanish diaspora, including in the United States. Because there are multiple place names and related word forms, different family lines may not share exactly the same local origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Linares is also the name of several towns in Spain and Latin America, so the surname can point to more than one ancestral homeland.
From the historical record
“de Adan, Linares, Las tierras sembradas de linos. Linde. El término o línea que divide una heredad de otra. Lineros. Los que tratan en lienzos o tejidos de lino.”
— Diccionario de los apellidos