Cesar
A surname most likely linked to the Roman name Caesar, though in Britain it was also reinforced by immigrant and regional family lines.
The #8,458 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 79,084 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Cesar is usually treated as a spelling variant of Caesar, the old Roman family name that became famous through Julius Caesar. In medieval and early modern usage, it could be adopted as a hereditary surname from the classical name, sometimes through continental immigrant families. The historical sources here also suggest a separate English tradition in which Cesar appears among families in Cornwall and Surrey, so not every bearer necessarily descends from one single line.
History
The name appears in English records from at least the 17th and early 18th centuries, including families in London, Hackney, Croydon, and Surrey. One noted bearer was Sir Julius Cesar, physician to Queen Elizabeth I, whose family was said to be Venetian by birth. Later writers also noticed clusters of the surname in Cornwall, which may indicate more than one route of entry into Britain.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century surname writer even speculated that some Cornish bearers might have come from Carthaginian sailors, though that idea is more colorful than certain.
From the historical record
“the name; Caesar, generallj apeak- ibg, being an immigrant. 'Julius Cesar, phisitian' to Queen Elixa- beth,w>aaVcDetianbybirth. His son, Sir Julius Cesar, was Master of the Robes to James I and Charles 1, and lived at Hackney, and the family ramified somewhat strongly.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances