Segovia
A surname taken from the Spanish city of Segovia, originally used for someone from that place.
The #2,733 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 23,422 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Segovia is a habitational surname, formed from the name of the Spanish city of Segovia. In surname use, it simply meant “one from Segovia” or “the person from Segovia.” The place-name itself is ancient and is generally traced back to pre-Roman or early Hispanic origins, so the surname’s ultimate root is older than medieval Spanish.
History
As a surname, Segovia spread through Spain and later into the wider Spanish-speaking world. It is common in historical records of Iberian and colonial populations, and today it is especially found in Spain and Latin America. Because it is a straightforward place-name surname, it has multiple independent origins in different families rather than one single ancestor.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname is shared with one of Spain’s most famous historic cities, so it often identifies ancestry from that region even when the family later moved far away.
From the historical record
“* Ademas de la acepción vulgar , tuvo esta voz otra . por lo menos en Segovia , de que da noticia su historiador Col- menares, y que pudo convertirse también en a^Dellido. Ha- blando de los caballeros D. Fernán García y D. Dia Sanz, dice : « Fundaron también los Quiñones, esto es, cien lanzas de a caballo que…”
— Ensayo histórico etimológico filológico sobre los apellidos castellanos