Méndez
A common Spanish surname meaning “son of Menendo” or, more broadly, “descendant of a man named Mendo/Menendo.”
The #162 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 1,909 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Méndez is a Spanish patronymic surname. The ending -ez is the old Spanish genitive/patronymic marker, meaning “son of” or “descendant of,” and in this case it was attached to a personal name such as Mendo or Menendo. The first element is usually taken to be a Germanic name, ultimately related to older name-stems found in medieval Iberia.
History
The surname is especially associated with the Spanish-speaking world and became widespread through medieval naming practices. Nineteenth-century writers debated the exact origin of the -ez ending, but modern scholarship generally treats it as a Romance patronymic formation shaped by earlier Germanic personal names in Iberia. Méndez remains common in Spain and across Latin America, and it is also frequent in the United States among Hispanic families.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same -ez ending appears in many Spanish surnames, including Fernández, González, and Rodríguez.
From the historical record
“MENDES 1 (Span.) the genit. of Mend: see MENDEZ I under Mend-el. ■ MENDOZA (Span.) app. f. the fem., mendosa, of Span. ffi^Mdrfjo,' mendacious.' MENIER (Fr.) i Miner [South. Fr. minier (Fr. mineur) ; of Celt. orig. : cp. Gael, mein, Ir. mdin, Wei. mwyn, ore, a mine] 2 a form of Meunier, q.v.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)