Fonseca Surname
Approximately 565,415 people bear this surname
Fonseca Surname Definition:
Dweller near a dry well or dry spring; one who came from Fonseca (dry spring), in Spain.
Seems to be derived from two words in Spanish "fuente" - fountain - and "seca" - dry. Hence a dry well.
Galician name from knight, Men Rodriguez de Fonseca, participant in conquest of Toledo in 1085.
Read More About This SurnameFonseca Surname Distribution Map
| Place | Incidence | Frequency | Rank in Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brazil | 230,440 | 1:929 | 113 |
| Colombia | 56,295 | 1:849 | 181 |
| Mexico | 55,105 | 1:2,253 | 326 |
| Portugal | 46,037 | 1:226 | 39 |
| Cuba | 30,672 | 1:376 | 59 |
| Angola | 22,480 | 1:1,201 | 213 |
| United States | 22,031 | 1:16,452 | 2,085 |
| Costa Rica | 21,973 | 1:218 | 60 |
| Venezuela | 15,618 | 1:1,934 | 338 |
| Nicaragua | 9,213 | 1:654 | 138 |
| Honduras | 8,442 | 1:1,044 | 223 |
| Argentina | 8,156 | 1:5,241 | 578 |
| Chile | 6,038 | 1:2,918 | 463 |
| Spain | 6,006 | 1:7,784 | 946 |
| Peru | 5,526 | 1:5,752 | 906 |
| Ecuador | 5,082 | 1:3,130 | 540 |
| Cape Verde | 2,765 | 1:192 | 49 |
| France | 2,340 | 1:28,386 | 3,460 |
| Uruguay | 1,641 | 1:2,091 | 251 |
| Paraguay | 1,307 | 1:5,537 | 432 |
| Panama | 1,093 | 1:3,579 | 441 |
| Philippines | 898 | 1:112,737 | 19,494 |
| Canada | 844 | 1:43,656 | 5,404 |
| India | 813 | 1:943,500 | 40,458 |
| São Tomé and Príncipe | 624 | 1:284 | 63 |
| El Salvador | 396 | 1:16,020 | 842 |
| England | 383 | 1:145,478 | 14,025 |
| Italy | 341 | 1:179,345 | 26,751 |
| South Africa | 311 | 1:174,205 | 19,257 |
| Dominican Republic | 277 | 1:37,664 | 2,069 |
| Switzerland | 263 | 1:31,228 | 4,665 |
| Puerto Rico | 260 | 1:13,654 | 589 |
| Bolivia | 192 | 1:55,294 | 2,856 |
| Thailand | 178 | 1:396,845 | 69,813 |
| Australia | 171 | 1:157,870 | 16,525 |
| Germany | 133 | 1:605,304 | 48,487 |
| Senegal | 125 | 1:116,635 | 1,121 |
| Belgium | 120 | 1:95,805 | 14,735 |
| Guatemala | 91 | 1:176,733 | 3,618 |
| British Virgin Islands | 84 | 1:376 | 81 |
| Suriname | 83 | 1:6,658 | 1,580 |
| Netherlands | 54 | 1:312,725 | 36,782 |
| Luxembourg | 53 | 1:10,954 | 1,898 |
| Denmark | 52 | 1:108,552 | 10,139 |
| New Zealand | 37 | 1:122,387 | 15,192 |
| Namibia | 34 | 1:70,865 | 7,497 |
| Andorra | 34 | 1:2,466 | 468 |
| Belize | 30 | 1:11,849 | 1,412 |
| Jamaica | 29 | 1:98,964 | 4,125 |
| Wales | 25 | 1:123,781 | 9,267 |
| Sweden | 24 | 1:410,282 | 29,154 |
| Norway | 23 | 1:223,578 | 24,793 |
| Indonesia | 23 | 1:5,749,965 | 259,967 |
| Pakistan | 17 | 1:10,508,464 | 49,949 |
| Malaysia | 17 | 1:1,734,954 | 70,664 |
| Nigeria | 16 | 1:11,071,422 | 210,388 |
| Ireland | 16 | 1:294,309 | 10,207 |
| United States Virgin Islands | 15 | 1:7,358 | 1,106 |
| Israel | 10 | 1:855,763 | 54,181 |
| Guam | 8 | 1:20,015 | 3,029 |
| Finland | 7 | 1:785,243 | 38,644 |
| Czechia | 7 | 1:1,519,067 | 97,842 |
| Scotland | 7 | 1:764,831 | 25,488 |
| Qatar | 6 | 1:393,000 | 55,922 |
| Northern Ireland | 5 | 1:369,007 | 15,220 |
| Lebanon | 3 | 1:1,879,028 | 22,073 |
| Croatia | 3 | 1:1,409,535 | 70,997 |
| Austria | 3 | 1:2,838,478 | 93,604 |
| Poland | 2 | 1:19,004,374 | 199,659 |
| Curaçao | 1 | 1:157,247 | 1,313 |
| Vietnam | 1 | 1:92,646,054 | 8,382 |
| Brunei | 1 | 1:418,731 | 3,893 |
| Kuwait | 1 | 1:3,800,694 | 27,187 |
| Swaziland | 1 | 1:1,298,199 | 1,718 |
| Estonia | 1 | 1:1,321,804 | 40,178 |
| Singapore | 1 | 1:5,507,703 | 47,049 |
| Iceland | 1 | 1:380,090 | 11,096 |
| Place | Incidence | Frequency | Rank in Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | 4 | 1:6,093,842 | 135,151 |
| Place | Incidence | Frequency | Rank in Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 38 | 1:1,321,544 | 72,820 |
The alternate forms: Fonsêca (132,332) are calculated separately.
Fonseca (3,290) may also be a first name.
Fonseca Surname Meaning
From Where Does The Surname Originate? meaning and history
Dweller near a dry well or dry spring; one who came from Fonseca (dry spring), in Spain.
Seems to be derived from two words in Spanish "fuente" - fountain - and "seca" - dry. Hence a dry well.
Galician name from knight, Men Rodriguez de Fonseca, participant in conquest of Toledo in 1085. Went to Portugal and descendants both Spanish and Portuguese.
(from a place name) From Fonseca, a town in Spain. The name means “dry spring.”
User-submitted Reference
The surname Fonseca has two origins. In Portugal, Fonseca derives from the Catalan, fontseca, which means 'dry fountain'. In the thirteenth century, in Portugal, the first to adopt the surname Fonseca was Afonso Gonçalo da Fonseca, who had several descendants.
The other origin of this family comes from Spain, from the lineage of the Riba Douro, who are the descendants of D. Moninho Viegas, known as the Gasco. He married Dona Valida Trocosendes and had a son (D. Rodrigo Garcia), who was killed in the conquest of Riba Douro. D. Rodrigo had two children and one of them was named D. Garcia Rodrigues, who became known as Fonseca because of the region where he lived.
Although there are two possible origins for this surname, the most accepted is the Portuguese one, because it is older and all the successors of Afonso had the surname Fonseca.
One of the descendants of the Fonseca family was Fernão Martins de Affonseca, who followed the path of his predecessors and became lord of the couto in Leomil. With this succession of relatives in the same position comes the surname Coutinho, which is a derivation of the lord's nickname. Fernão was known by that nickname. In this line of reasoning the Coutinho are the descendants of the Fonseca family.
- acfm8It means "dry spring".
According to some onomastics researchers, name Fonseca is originally from the Catalan Fontseca, which means exactly "spring that is dry."
Has toponymic origin, ie the surname Fonseca was created in reference to a place; a patriarch who was known to be or come from a certain place.
- niedellanFonseca Demographics
Fonseca Political Affiliation
in United States
United States
Average
Fonseca Last Name Facts
Where Does The Last Name Fonseca Come From? nationality or country of origin
The surname Fonseca (Marathi: ोन्सेका) occurs most in Brazil. It may occur in the variant forms: Fonsêca. For other potential spellings of this surname click here.
How Common Is The Last Name Fonseca? popularity and diffusion
This last name is the 941st most widely held last name in the world. It is borne by approximately 1 in 12,889 people. This surname occurs mostly in The Americas, where 85 percent of Fonseca live; 58 percent live in South America and 41 percent live in Luso-South America. Fonseca is also the 124,757th most frequently held forename on earth It is held by 3,290 people.
Fonseca is most frequent in Brazil, where it is borne by 230,440 people, or 1 in 929. In Brazil it is primarily concentrated in: Minas Gerais, where 19 percent are found, São Paulo, where 17 percent are found and Rio de Janeiro, where 11 percent are found. Besides Brazil Fonseca is found in 76 countries. It is also common in Colombia, where 10 percent are found and Mexico, where 10 percent are found.
Fonseca Family Population Trend historical fluctuation
The frequency of Fonseca has changed through the years. In The United States the number of people bearing the Fonseca surname rose 57,976 percent between 1880 and 2014 and in England it rose 9,575 percent between 1881 and 2014.
Fonseca Last Name Statistics demography
The religious devotion of those bearing the surname is predominantly Maronite (100%) in Lebanon.
In The United States Fonseca are 41.85% more likely to be registered with the Democratic Party than The US average, with 95.08% registered with the party.
The amount Fonseca earn in different countries varies greatly. In Italy they earn 16.84% less than the national average, earning €24,973 per year; in Norway they earn 25.69% less than the national average, earning 257,188 kr per year; in Peru they earn 1.62% more than the national average, earning S/. 19,699 per year; in South Africa they earn 90.97% more than the national average, earning R 453,816 per year; in Colombia they earn 7.7% more than the national average, earning $24,451,300 COP per year; in United States they earn 9.24% less than the national average, earning $39,160 USD per year and in Canada they earn 6.84% more than the national average, earning $53,081 CAD per year.
Phonetically Similar Names
Fonseca Name Transliterations
| Transliteration | ICU Latin | Percentage of Incidence |
|---|---|---|
| Fonseca in the Marathi language | ||
| ोन्सेका | onseka | 36.36 |
| ॉन्सेका | onseka | 27.27 |
| ॉन्से | onse | 18.18 |
| फ़ोन्सेका | fonseka | 9.09 |
| फ़ॉन्सेका | fonseka | 9.09 |
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Footnotes
- Surnames are taken as the first part of an person's inherited family name, caste, clan name or in some cases patronymic
- Descriptions may contain details on the name's etymology, origin, ethnicity and history. They are largely reproduced from 3rd party sources; diligence is advised on accepting their validity - more information
- Name distribution statistics are generated from a global database of over 4 billion people - more information
- Heatmap: Dark red means there is a higher occurrence of the name, transitioning to light yellow signifies a progressively lower occurrence. Clicking on selected countries will show mapping at a regional level
- Rank: Name are ranked by incidence using the ordinal ranking method; the name that occurs the most is assigned a rank of 1; name that occur less frequently receive an incremented rank; if two or more name occur the same number of times they are assigned the same rank and successive rank is incremented by the total preceeding names
- Ethnic group cannot necessarily be determined by geographic occurrence
- Similar: Names listed in the "Similar" section are phonetically similar and may not have any relation to Fonseca
- To find out more about this surname's family history, lookup records on FamilySearch, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and Ancestry. Further information may be obtained by DNA analysis