Piñeiro
A Spanish and Galician surname meaning “pine grove” or “pine tree place.”
The #9,395 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 89,207 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Piñeiro comes from a word for a pine tree or pine grove, ultimately from Latin pinus, meaning “pine.” As a surname, it likely began as a name for someone who lived near pines or in a place marked by pine trees. The spelling without the tilde, Pineiro, is a common simplified form outside Spanish orthography.
History
The surname is especially associated with Galicia in northwestern Spain, where many surnames grew from local landscape features. It also appears in Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking communities abroad, often in simplified forms that drop the ñ. In records outside Iberia, Piñeiro and Pineiro are usually the same family name.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same root behind Piñeiro also gives English words like “pine” and botanical terms for pine species.
From the historical record
“Pineda 379, *438. Pinedo 379. Pineiro 337. Pinelli 200, 337. Pinet 200. Pinetti 337. *Pinciacensis 456. Pinckeponk 629.”
— Die Personennamen, insbesondere die Familiennamen