Costa Rican Last Name Generator

Costa Rican last names, one surname per entry with accents kept: everyday names like Vargas, Jiménez and Quesada, Central Valley families like Alpízar, Azofeifa and Víquez, Guanacaste names like Matarrita and Limón surnames like McKenzie.

About Costa Rican last names

Costa Rican surnames are Spanish at the core, and the families you meet most are found all over the country: Rodríguez, Vargas, Jiménez, Mora, Rojas, Quesada, Solís and Araya. What marks a list as Tico is the next layer, the old Central Valley families of Cartago, Heredia and Alajuela whose names are rare elsewhere: Alpízar, Azofeifa, Barrantes, Brenes, Chinchilla, Oconitrillo, Víquez and Zumbado. Local spelling matters too. Chaves is usually written with an s and Yglesias with a Y is an established family spelling, so both appear beside the standard Chávez and Iglesias.

Two regions add their own stock. Guanacaste's names, some of them shared with neighboring Nicaragua, include Baltodano, Matarrita, Cabalceta and Viales. On the Caribbean coast, families descended from Jamaican railway and banana workers carry English surnames such as Campbell, McKenzie, Hylton and Whyte, and about one entry in ten is of this kind.

A small share are the names of immigrant families of German, Italian, French, Catalan, Lebanese, Chinese and Jewish origin, such as Niehaus, Rohrmoser, Musmanni, Sauma, Apuy and Weisleder. Every entry is a single surname. Costa Ricans use two, the father's first and then the mother's, so any pair from the list makes a full legal name. A surname shows where a name came from, not where a person did.

How to choose Costa Rican last names

• Build a full name the Costa Rican way: given name, father's first surname, mother's first surname. A character called Daniela Mora Víquez has a Mora father and a Víquez mother, and is Daniela Mora for short.
• Keep the accents. Alpízar, Víquez, Zúñiga, Solís and Quirós are stressed on the marked syllable, and a name printed without its accent looks wrong to a Costa Rican reader.
• Pair a very common surname with a rare one, such as Rodríguez with Oconitrillo or Mora with Somarribas, when a character has to stand out in a town full of Moras.
• Use region to place a family. Matarrita, Cabalceta and Viales suggest Guanacaste, and Campbell, Hylton or McKenzie suggest Limón, often with a Spanish surname in the second place.
• A married woman in Costa Rica keeps her own two surnames, so do not rename a character at her wedding.

Frequently asked questions

What are common Costa Rican last names?

Rodríguez, Vargas, Jiménez, Mora, Rojas, Quesada, Solís, Araya, Chaves and Villalobos are among the surnames you will meet most often in Costa Rica. All of them are in this list, next to several hundred that are much rarer, such as Oconitrillo, Monestel and Parajeles.

Which last names are typically Costa Rican?

Alpízar, Azofeifa, Artavia, Barrantes, Brenes, Chinchilla, Sibaja, Ulate, Umaña, Vindas, Víquez and Zumbado are far more at home in Costa Rica than in most Spanish-speaking countries. They come mostly from long-settled Central Valley families. A surname like these says Tico in a way that García or López cannot.

Why do Costa Ricans have two last names?

Costa Rica follows the Spanish custom: a child takes the father's first surname followed by the mother's first surname, and both are part of the legal name. This page lists single surnames, so choose two to make a full name, for example Quesada Alpízar or Brenes Matarrita.

Why are there English surnames in a Costa Rican list?

Many families in Limón province descend from Jamaicans and other West Indians who came to build the Atlantic railway and work the banana plantations. Their surnames, such as Campbell, Grant, McKenzie, Hylton and Whyte, have been Costa Rican for generations. They make up about a tenth of the entries here.

Related generators

All 500 Costa Rican last names