Spanish Last Name Generator

Spanish last names fall into a few clear families. The biggest is the patronymic group ending in -ez, meaning "son of": Fernández (son of Fernando), Rodríguez (Rodrigo), López (Lope), Martínez (Martín), Sánchez (Sancho), Pérez (Pedro). These dominate the top of the list in Spain and across Latin America, which is why a realistic cast needs a couple of them. Next come place names (Navarro, Toledo, Sevilla, Medina, Villanueva), then descriptive names (Moreno for dark hair, Rubio for fair, Delgado for slim, Calvo for bald), occupations (Herrero, Zapatero, Escribano) and natural features (Ríos, Vega, Peña, Campos, Naranjo).

Region changes the flavor. Basque surnames are long and full of tx, tz and -aga endings (Etxeberria, Zubizarreta, Larrañaga); Catalan names are short and clipped (Puig, Bosch, Serra, Pujol); Galician ones often end in -eiro or -ás (Piñeiro, Barreiro, Carballo). Particle surnames (De la Fuente, Del Río, De los Santos) and two-part noble names (Fernández de Córdoba, Hurtado de Mendoza) signal old or aristocratic families. In Latin America you will also meet names that are rare in Spain, such as Treviño, Valenzuela, Jaramillo and Betancourt.

Remember that Spanish speakers carry two surnames, father's first and mother's second, so pair any two from this list for a full legal name.