Carillo
A surname probably linked to a Spanish nickname or kinship term, with the older form Carrillo more common.
The #7,015 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 64,672 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The cited 19th-century source treats Carillo as a variant of an older form related to Spanish caro/carrillo, which it connects with a nickname or kinship idea. In that account, the name seems to have developed from a descriptive or relational byname rather than from a fixed hereditary surname from the start. The form Carillo is likely an orthographic or regional variant of the better-known Carrillo.
History
The historical note suggests that forms like carillo, cariello, carriello, and carrillo circulated as surname spellings, with Carrillo ultimately becoming the standard modern form. The same source also implies that the name may once have functioned as a casual identifying label before becoming hereditary. Because the excerpt is incidental and not a full dictionary entry, this should be treated cautiously.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The excerpt explicitly shows several historical spellings side by side, which is a useful reminder that surnames often stabilized only after centuries of variation.
From the historical record
“co, por la mayor notoriedad de la persona con quien éste ligaba , y se decia después del nom- bre : carillo, cariello, carriello ó carrillo, cormano, nepto, neto ó nieto, sobrino, entenado ó antenado, ajigiado, afiliado ó afilado, cuñado, compadre , pa- riente; designación incompleta y vaga, queque- daba de…”
— Ensayo histórico etimológico filológico sobre los apellidos castellanos