Calderon
A surname of Spanish origin, best known from the writer Pedro Calderón de la Barca.
The #421 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 4,005 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name is Spanish in form, and the historical sources you provided connect it to the Spanish surname Calderón. One line of older scholarship links it with Old Germanic name-elements such as gold- and friend-words in forms like Goldrun/Calderon, but that etymology is speculative and not secure. In Spanish, the form is also associated with the common word calderón, from caldera, meaning a large cauldron or kettle, which may have influenced surname formation or folk explanation.
History
The surname is especially familiar through the seventeenth-century dramatist Pedro Calderón de la Barca, whose name helped fix it in literary history. Older onomastic works also note Calderón as a Spanish form alongside related European name variants, though their explanations often conflict. In modern use it is a well-established Spanish and Hispanic surname, also widespread in Latin America and among Spanish-speaking communities.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Pedro Calderón de la Barca is one of the great names of Spain's Golden Age, and his surname is still instantly recognizable today.
From the historical record
“says Gothrun or Guthrum was the name of the Danish king who was baptised by Alfred. It may also be from G. wald-ram, strong or powerful prince ; or from Goldrun (Waldron, Calderon) ; from wald-run, a powerful friend. Hence the names Goodram, Good- groom. GOODSHEEP. See GOODCHEAP.”
— Ludus Patronymicus; or, the etymology of curious surnames