Nuno
A surname from a medieval personal name, ultimately linked to the old Spanish and Portuguese forename Nuno.
The #5,348 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 47,456 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Nuno began as a personal name in medieval Iberia and later became a hereditary surname. The name is traditionally treated as coming from an old given name Nuno, used in Spain and Portugal. Some older scholarship connected it with the Latin idea of an “announced” or proclaimed name, but that explanation is not firm, so the safest view is that the surname is patronymic, from an ancestral forename.
History
The name is well attested in medieval Iberian records, where Nuno appears as a given name borne by nobles and other men. As surnames became hereditary, descendants or families associated with a man named Nuno could take the name as a surname. Today it is uncommon as a surname overall, but it remains strongly associated with the Iberian world.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A medieval Castilian nobleman famous in Spanish history was Nuno Álvares-type naming tradition, showing how old the forename was in Iberia.
From the historical record
“trophcD'Awet, eo lately aa 1724, bj Sir William D'Awes, Archbiahop of CanterbuT7. I itill think, however, that in many inataooea Dawea ia a aimple ' nuno-name :' without it I do not gee how we can gel our Dawson, Dawkins, Dawkinson, &e., anymore than we can get Hawkins and Hawkiason from Heiirj without the…”
— English Surnames: an essay on family nomenclature (4th ed.)