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García (surname)

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Garcia, Gartzia or García is an Iberian surname common throughout Spain, Portugal, Andorra, the Americas, and the Philippines. It is a surname of patronymic origin; García was a very common first name in early medieval Iberia.

García (Castillian), Gartzia (Basque)
Pronunciation[ɡaɾˈθi.a] (Spain) or [ɡaɾˈsi.a] (Latin America)
Origin
Region of originIberian Peninsula
Other names
Variant form(s)Garci, Garza, Garzia, Garcia, Garcés, Garcicea, Garciandia, Gassie, Gassion, Gaztea
Frequency Comparisons:[1]

Origins

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It may have been a Basque surname "Gaztea" which later was Castilianized in the medieval Kingdom of Castile to become "García".

It is attested since the High Middle Ages north and south of the Pyrenees (Basque Culture Territories), with the surname (and sometimes first name too) thriving, especially in the Kingdom of Navarre, and spreading out to Castile and other Spanish regions.

Alfonso Irigoyen believed it to derive from the Basque adjective garze(a) meaning "young", whose modern form is gaztea or gaztia.[2][3] Ramón Menéndez Pidal and Antonio Tovar suggested it may come from the Basque word (H)artz, meaning "(the) Bear".[2][4][5][6][7] A third etymology suggests it may derive from the Basque words "Gazte Hartz", meaning "(the) young bear".[citation needed] Variant forms of the name include Garcicea, Gartzi, Gartzia, Gartze, Garsea, and Gastea.[8] The original Basque form with an affricate sibilant (/ts/, Basque spelling tz) evolved in Spanish to the current form.

There are Gasconic cognates of Garcia like Gassie and Gassion[9] (Béarn, Gassio 14th century,[10] real name of Edith Piaf, born Edith Gassion).

Other theories suggest that García is of Germanic origin and may derive from wars meaning young warrior[11] or the Visigothic words garxa and garcha meaning graceful prince.[12]

Popularity

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Most common surname in Spain by province of residence

García is the most common surname in Spain (where 3.32% of the population is named García)[13] and also the second most common surname in Mexico.

In the 1990 United States Census, Garcia was the 18th most reported surname, accounting for 0.25% of the population.[14] It has become more common since then, jumping to eighth place in 2000.[15]

Garcia was quite rare before the First World War in France, except in the French Pays Basque,[16] but became the 14th most common surname in France (and the eighth for the number of births between 1966 and 1990) due to Spanish immigration.[17][18] It ranked second in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur for the number of births 1966–1990.[19]

Geographical distribution

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As of 2014, 33.2% of all known bearers of the surname García were residents of Mexico (frequency 1:35), 14.1% of Spain (1:31), 8.4% of the United States (1:402), 6.0% of Colombia (1:74), 4.6% of Venezuela (1:62), 4.4% of Brazil (1:435), 4.1% of the Philippines (1:230), 3.9% of Guatemala (1:39), 3.0% of Argentina (1:134), 2.8% of Cuba (1:38), 2.8% of Peru (1:105), 1.8% of Ecuador (1:83), 1.7% of Honduras (1:48), 1.5% of the Dominican Republic (1:64), 1.4% of Nicaragua (1:41), 1.2% of El Salvador (1:47) and 1.1% of France (1:576).

In Spain, the frequency of the surname was higher than average (1:31) in the following regions:

In Mexico, the frequency of the surname was higher than average (1:35) in the following states:[20]

Notable people

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D

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E

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F

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G

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H

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I

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J

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K

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L

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N

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O

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P

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R

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S

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W

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X

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Y

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Fictional characters

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "García Surname Meaning and Distribution". forebears.co.uk.
  2. ^ a b Gartzia (Garzia, García) euskal deitura dela eta, language question presented to the Academy of the Basque Language answered by Xabier Kintana.
  3. ^ For the lost r, compare the attested historic alternations bost~bortz 'five', oste~ortze 'sky', etc.
  4. ^ "Garcia". Archived from the original on 2014-07-11. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  5. ^ "Garcia Last Name Origin".
  6. ^ "Garcia Genealogy & History".
  7. ^ "Garcia name meaning". Ancestry.com.
  8. ^ "Nombres" (in Spanish). Euskaltzaindia (The Royal Academy of the Basque Language). Retrieved 2010-10-12.
  9. ^ Albert Dauzat, Dictionnaire étymologique des noms et prénoms de France, réédition Larousse 1980, p. 280b
  10. ^ DAUZAT 280b
  11. ^ Elián, Juan Sebastián (2001). El gran libro de los apellidos y la heráldica. ISBN 9788479275495.
  12. ^ Piferrer, Francisco (1858). "Nobiliario de los reinos y señoríos de España ...: Ilustrado con un diccionario de heráldica, adornado con más de dos mil escudos de armas".
  13. ^ INE (Spain's Statistics National Institute)
  14. ^ United States Census Bureau (9 May 1995). s:1990 Census Name Files dist.all.last (1-100). Retrieved on 2008-07-04.
  15. ^ "Frequently Occurring Surnames From Census 2000". census.gov. August 27, 2008. Archived from the original on November 19, 2007. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  16. ^ Garcia in France before WWI
  17. ^ Garcia : births (naiss.) in France from 1966 to 1990
  18. ^ List of the most common surnames in France
  19. ^ "LES NOMS DE FAMILLE LES PLUS PORTES EN FRANCE DANS LA REGION de PROVENCE-ALPES-COTES d'AZUR entre 1966 et 1990".
  20. ^ Garcia surname distribution
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