Zamora
A surname taken from the Spanish city of Zamora, originally used for someone from that place.
The #540 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 5,002 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Zamora is a habitational surname, meaning “from Zamora,” the well-known city in northwestern Spain. The place-name itself is usually traced back to a much older pre-Roman or Latinized name, though the deeper origin is not certain. As a surname, it would originally identify someone who came from the city or from the surrounding province.
History
The surname spread through Spain and later across the Spanish-speaking world as people moved from the city or adopted the place-name as an inherited family name. It is especially common in Spain and in Latin America, and it also appears among Hispanic communities in the United States. Historical Spanish surname collections routinely list Zamora among surnames derived from place-names.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Zamora is both a surname and the name of a province and historic city in Spain, so the family name can point to geographic origin quite directly.
From the historical record
“Alcala, Cintra, Ronda, Cathalongne (Catalonia), Cordova, Valencia, Toledo, Talavera, Zamora, Moreno (see Sierra), Prado, Merida, Villareal, Castroverde, Alcantara, Saragossa, Barcelona, Malaga, Astorga, Alameda, Alcazar, Montserrat,”
— A Grammar of American Surnames