We all certainly have some (or some) acquaintances with the Rodríguez or González surname. And it is that these are the most common surnames of several Latin American countries. According to the Forebears.io website, Rodríguez is the most common surname in Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, and Paraguay. González is most common in Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Paraguay. García, the most common surname in Ecuador, was also the most common in Spain in 2021.
There are many patronymic surnames in Latin America: those originally denoting descent, affiliation, or belonging to a lineage, usually ending with the suffix -ez, such as López or Sánchez. They were formed from the father’s name and given a suffix (Fernando – Fernández).
This infographic shows the most common surnames in Latin America by country.