Mendoza
A famous Spanish surname, originally tied to a place name in the Basque Country and long associated with one of medieval Spain’s great noble houses.
The #88 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 1,272 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Mendoza is a Spanish surname taken from the place name Mendoza in Álava, in the Basque Country. The place-name is generally explained from Basque elements, often interpreted as meaning something like "cold mountain" or "cold hill," though older scholarship sometimes offered different guesses. The surname therefore began as a habitational name for someone from that place.
History
The name was borne by the powerful House of Mendoza, one of the best-known noble lineages in medieval and early modern Spain. Through Spanish expansion and later migration, it spread widely across the Spanish-speaking world and is now common in the Americas as well as Spain. In English-language sources it is often noted chiefly as a Spanish surname, sometimes with reference to the noble family.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname is so strongly linked to the historic Mendoza family that it often appears in Spanish history books as a shorthand for that noble house.
From the historical record
“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,”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)