Tinoco
A Spanish and Portuguese surname most often linked to a place name or regional nickname, especially in Iberian tradition.
The #3,670 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 31,806 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Tinoco is an Iberian surname found in both Spanish and Portuguese-speaking areas. It is generally treated as a locative or nickname-style surname, though the precise root is not fully certain from the surname alone. In many cases, surnames of this shape began as identifiers tied to a place, a house, or a local descriptive term that later became hereditary.
History
The surname appears in the Iberian world and then spread to the Americas through Spanish and Portuguese migration. It is established in Latin American countries and among Hispanic communities in the United States. Because the name is relatively uncommon, its family histories are often region-specific rather than tied to one single famous origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Tinoco is common enough in modern Hispanic communities to appear in U.S. Census data, but it remains relatively uncommon overall.