Zamudio
A Basque habitational surname from the town of Zamudio in Bizkaia, Spain.
The #3,174 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 27,121 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Zamudio is a habitational surname, originally given to someone from the town of Zamudio in Biscay (Bizkaia), in the Basque Country of northern Spain. The place-name itself is generally treated as Basque in origin, though its deepest roots are not fully certain in the older literature. As with many Basque surnames, the family name simply points back to an ancestral home or lordship rather than to an occupation or personal characteristic.
History
The surname is associated with an old Basque noble line and appears in historical references alongside other classic Basque family names. Spanish genealogical writers of the 19th and early 20th centuries often treated it as one of the recognizable Basque surnames. In modern times it is found in Spain and in the Americas, especially where Spanish and Basque migration spread family names abroad.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Zamudio is also the name of a municipality in Biscay, so the surname and place-name point to the same geographic root.
From the historical record
“en la familia de Zamudio. Ordoño de Zamudio tuvo cuatro hijos legítimos, el mayor continuó su apellido, el segundo tomó el de Rivas por haber heredado este solar, el tercero se apellidó Salcedo por haber heredado la torre mayor de Salcedo, construida por un Marroquín, de quien descendía, y el cuarto también…”
— Origen de 300 apellidos castellanos y vascongados