Varga
A surname with several possible roots, most often linked to a place-name or to a word for a slope or hillside.
The #5,608 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 49,790 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Varga can arise in more than one language tradition, so it is not a single-cause surname everywhere it appears. In Hungarian and nearby Central European usage, it is commonly associated with a professional surname meaning “cobbler” or “shoemaker” in related Slavic and Hungarian naming traditions; elsewhere, especially in Iberian place-name lists, it can reflect a locational surname from a terrain term meaning a slope, embankment, or hillside. Because the same spelling developed independently in different regions, the exact meaning depends on the family line.
History
The surname is especially common in Hungary and among Slovak, Croatian, and other Central European families, where it often reflects an occupational naming pattern. In Spanish scholarship, the word also appears in place-name inventories, showing that it could function as a topographic surname in Iberian contexts as well. Modern bearers may therefore have unrelated ancestral origins even when the spelling is identical.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because Varga arose independently in more than one naming tradition, two people with this surname may share the spelling but not the same etymology.
From the historical record
“tigua de casa) , seara ^ , selva , sequera , serna^ sierra^ solana^ soler , soto, soteloy tablada 6 taboa- da, terrada, teso, valle ^ varga, ^*^^<^j vera, vila, villar, vivar, usera. Asimismo prestaron denominación los sitios poblados de ciertas plantas ó árboles, ó en que abundaban determinados productos ú objetos :”
— Ensayo histórico etimológico filológico sobre los apellidos castellanos