Vaca
A surname from the Spanish word for “cow,” often applied as a nickname or as part of a place-name-style family name.
The #4,444 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 38,680 Americans shares it.
Etymology
In Spanish, vaca means “cow,” and the word comes from Latin vacca. As a surname, it was likely first used as a nickname for someone associated with cattle, a cowherd, or a place known by that name. In Spanish naming traditions, it can also appear in compound surnames or toponymic forms such as Cabeza de Vaca.
History
The excerpts show Spanish and Hispanic usage, including references to Vaca alongside other animal-based surnames and to the well-known compound surname Cabeza de Vaca. In Hispanic naming practice, animal words could become inherited surnames either as nicknames or through place-based naming. The surname is also found in the Americas through Spanish colonial and later migration patterns.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The famous explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca carried the animal-based compound surname that helped make this name historically recognizable.
From the historical record
“Tu!l-No^kint, 425 Vaca. 413 1 lowler. 420 Tulye, 424”
— The Norman People and their existing descendants in the British dominions and the United States