Pinto
A surname that can be Portuguese or Spanish, most often understood as a nickname meaning “chick” or “speckled/chicken-colored,” though some bearers may also have place-name roots.
The #1,687 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 14,450 Americans shares it.
Etymology
In the Portuguese tradition, the name is linked to pinto, a word meaning “chick” or “chickling,” and by extension a small or young bird. Some older writers also connect it with color or marking terms, suggesting a sense of “speckled” or “dappled,” though that explanation is less certain from the excerpts here. In Spanish, the surname can also be tied to a place-name origin in some cases, so not every family with this spelling shares the same source.
History
The name is well established in Iberian naming traditions and appears widely in Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking regions. It was carried abroad through migration, especially into the Americas and other parts of Europe. The surname is also familiar in historical literature because of the Portuguese traveler Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, whose name became proverbial.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Ferdinand Mendez Pinto made his surname famous enough that English writers long used “Pinto” as a shorthand for a great traveler or a storyteller.
From the historical record
“2 (occ) Pin(n)'s Son : v. Pinn. PINTO, v. the Appendix of Foreign Names. PINXTON (Eng.) Bel. to Pinxton (Derby) = PiNc's Estate [A.-Sax. Pincl,k)es-ttin : v. under Pink(e',and-f-O.E. iii», estate, etc.] PINYON, V, Pinnion. Pipe”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)