Mosquera
A Spanish surname most likely tied to places or landscape names associated with flies or marshy, moist ground.
The #9,846 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 93,958 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Mosquera is a Spanish and related Iberian surname that likely began as a habitational name from a place called Mosquera or from a local landscape term. It is commonly connected with the root mosca, meaning "fly," so the original sense may have been something like "place of flies" or a spot associated with insects or marshy conditions. Because the historical excerpt only lists the name among other surnames and does not explain it directly, this explanation is based on standard onomastic patterning rather than explicit source glosses.
History
The name is especially associated with Spain and Spanish-speaking regions, and it also appears in Galicia and Portuguese-speaking areas. In modern use it spread widely to the Americas through Spanish and Portuguese migration. Historical surname dictionaries often group it with other Iberian place-based names ending in -era or -edo.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname is close in form to Spanish words for places where a plant, animal, or natural feature is abundant—many Iberian surnames grew from that kind of local description.
From the historical record
“aféresis edo) , Idnojal , hinojosa , loredo , losada maceda ó maceii^a , malvar^ manzanedo, melgar, moraleda, moscoso^ mosquera, nebreda, neda, noce- da, nocedal, nodal, nogareda, nogueral, 7iozal, nue- da, olivares, olmeda , olmedo, ortigosa , ortiguera, pereda, pereira, pimentel, 2^iiieda, jnnedo, pinero, pobeda…”
— Ensayo histórico etimológico filológico sobre los apellidos castellanos