Cornejo
A Spanish surname probably linked to a “horn” word or to a place name, though the older sources do not agree on a single clear origin.
The #2,045 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 17,551 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The historical material does not give a firm, single derivation for Cornejo. One older writer treats it as a form related to Coronel, but that explanation is speculative and not generally accepted today. A more plausible broad reading is that it belongs to the Spanish surname stock built from Latin-root words or place-based surnames, possibly connected with cornejo, the Spanish word for a kind of dogwood tree, or with a local place name formed from that word.
History
The surname is well established in Spain and later spread widely through Spanish-speaking countries. The excerpted 19th-century discussion shows that scholars were already uncertain about its origin and were comparing it with other similar-looking surnames. In modern usage it is especially common in Latin America and in diaspora communities in the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The old source excerpt explicitly notes that Cornejo had been written in other forms, including Cornegio, showing how unstable surname spelling could be before modern standardization.
From the historical record
“Jerónimo Gonzalez Benito Fuentes Enrique Cornejo D. Tristan Cornejo C. Manuel Contreras Horacio. M. Cerda Julio Berrios Heriberto González”
— Diccionario de los apellidos