Diaz

Díaz is a common surname of Spanish origin with multiple meanings in multiple languages. First found in Kingdom of Castile, where the name originated in the Visigoth period, the name accounts for about 0.17% of the Spanish population, ranking as the 14th-most frequently found surname in both 1999 and 2004[1] compared to the most popular Spanish surname of those years.

There is minor evidence that Díez may be equivalent to Díaz, in the form of Spanish language listing of most frequent surnames in 1999 Spain.[2] However, a 2008 in-press academic manuscript about Spanish naming in 2004 suggests otherwise, listing statistics for "Díaz" and "Díez" separately.[3][4] The surname is cognate with the Portuguese language surname Dias.

Díaz and the anglicized form Diaz appear to be surnames only, without evidence for use as given names. Use of Diaz may arise through Anglicization of Portuguese language Dias.

Many examples of the surnames Díaz exist among historically notable people as a patronymic of Diego. Among the earliest such examples is El Cid, whose real name was Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, and whose father's given name was Diego.[5][full citation needed ]

There is at least one instance of use as a single name, the former Norwegian rap artist Diaz, who was born to a Spanish father and Norwegian mother; his birth name is "Andrés Rafael Díaz".[citation needed ]

As of 2014, 21.5% of all known bearers of the surname Díaz were residents of Mexico (frequency 1:132), 11.4% of Colombia (1:96), 9.1% of Argentina (1:108), 8.0% of Spain (1:134), 7.2% of Venezuela (1:96), 6.7% of the United States (1:1,242), 5.2% of Peru (1:142), 5.0% of Cuba (1:53), 4.6% of Chile (1:87), 3.1% of the Philippines (1:742), 2.9% of the Dominican Republic (1:83), 2.5% of Puerto Rico (1:33), 2.4% of Guatemala (1:155), 2.0% of Honduras (1:100), 1.4% of El Salvador (1:107), 1.3% of Nicaragua (1:103), 1.2% of Ecuador (1:293) and 1.0% of Paraguay (1:161).

In Spain, the frequency of the surname was higher than national average (1:134) in the following autonomous communities:

In Puerto Rico, the frequency of the surname was higher than national average (1:33) in the following municipalities:[6]

In Latin America Díaz was among the top 25% of surnames in use based on a study conducted in 1987 by the Institute for Genealogy and History for Latin America (De Platt 1996, pages 31–32).

Spanish surnames, including Díaz, are found more abundantly in Southern Italy than other non-Italian surnames as a result of the domination of Italy by Spain during the 17th century (Fucilla 1949).

The following matrix contains available information on the frequency of this surname in various countries across a span of years.

Reference codes, see #References: (a)=OcioTotal 1999, (b)=Mateos & Tucker 2008, (c)=Longley, et al., (d)=United States Census Bureau 1995, (e)=United States Census Bureau 2000

Several assessed countries have shown no instances of this surname, among these being Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and Scotland (Bowie 2003; Longley, et al.).