Mijares
A Spanish surname most likely tied to a place name, especially the village of Mijares in Ávila, Spain.
The #9,912 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 94,736 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Mijares is a Spanish surname that most likely began as a locational name, taken from a place called Mijares. The best-known source is the town of Mijares in the province of Ávila, and surnames like this were commonly adopted to identify someone who came from that place. The place-name itself is old, but its deeper pre-Roman or medieval meaning is not securely established in standard surname references.
History
As with many Spanish toponymic surnames, Mijares would have spread when people left their home locality and were identified by its name. The surname is found in Spain and in Spanish-speaking communities in the Americas, especially where migration from Spain later carried it overseas. A surname of this form is also common in records from the Philippines and Latin America, reflecting Spanish colonial-era naming patterns.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
There is also a prominent Río Mijares in eastern Spain, so the surname may sometimes evoke more than one geographic association even when its family origin is locational.