Navas
A Spanish surname that most likely began as a place-name, from the plural of a word for a marshy flat or meadow.
The #6,809 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 62,335 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Navas is the plural of Spanish nava, a word used for a flat, low-lying piece of land, often damp, marshy, or meadow-like. That makes the surname a locational name, originally applied to someone who came from a place called Navas or from an area characterized by such terrain. Older scholarship also connects the word ultimately to a Latin base referring to a flat plain or wet hollow, though medieval usage varied by region.
History
The surname is well established in Spain and appears in historical family records attached to several noble lineages. The famous place-name Las Navas de Tolosa helped keep the form visible in Spanish history, though the surname itself is broader than that one battle reference. Today Navas remains a relatively uncommon but recognizably Spanish surname, also found in Latin American communities.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because it is the plural form, Navas literally means something like 'the marshy flats' or 'the meadows,' depending on the local sense of nava.
From the historical record
“Navailles. Voy. Nooillis. Navas, Nave. Prairie maréca- geuse, navire (oil). Naveau, Navel, Navelet, Na- vet. 1" Dérivé de Xavc : prairie ma- récageuse, navire (oil; ; 2" navet”
— Dictionnaire des noms (French surnames)Notable people named Navas
- Keylor Navas (b. 1986)
- Jesús Navas (b. 1985)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.