Quiñones
A Spanish surname most often linked to a place name or to the word for a thorny shrub, with the ñ sound giving it a distinctly Spanish shape.
The #1,014 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 8,957 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Quiñones is a Spanish surname, usually explained as either locational or habitational, from a place name such as Quiñones, or from a term related to quinón, meaning a plot of land or share of land in some regional Spanish usage. Some etymologies also connect it with Latin quinus, "five," though that is less certain and is not the usual everyday explanation today. The spelling with ñ reflects Spanish orthography, and the name was later carried into other languages without the tilde as Quinones.
History
The surname is well established in Spain and was carried to the Americas through Spanish migration and colonial settlement. In modern usage it is especially common in Latin American communities and among Spanish-speaking families in the United States. Because surnames were often fixed from place names, landholding terms, or local features, more than one branch of the family name may have independent origins.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In English-language records, the tilde is often dropped, so the same family may appear as both Quiñones and Quinones in different documents.