Prado
A Spanish and Portuguese surname meaning “meadow” or “pasture,” often originally from a place by that name.
The #1,533 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 13,174 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Prado comes from Spanish and Portuguese prado, meaning “meadow” or “pasture.” The word goes back to Latin pratum, “meadow.” As a surname, it usually began as a habitational or topographic name for someone who lived near a meadow or came from a place called Prado.
History
The surname is well established in the Iberian world and appears in place names as well as family names. It also spread widely through Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries and later into the Americas. Historical surname lists and onomastic works regularly treat Prado as a common Iberian locative name.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same Latin root gave English the learned word "prairie" through French, while in Spanish it stayed as prado.
From the historical record
“[O.Fr. prat (Fr. pr^, Lat. prat-um (a mea- dow), whence also South. Fr. prat, Ital. prato, Span, prado'] Prat and Duprat are common French surnames. Marquis de Prat.— Pam Directory.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)