Garcia, Gartzia or García is an Iberian surname common throughout Spain, Portugal, Andorra, the Americas, and the Philippines. It is a surname of patronymic origin; García was a very common first name in early medieval Iberia.

Origins

It may have been a Basque surname "Gaztea" which later was Castilianized in the medieval Kingdom of Castile to become "García". It is attested since the High Middle Ages north and south of the Pyrenees (Basque Culture Territories), with the surname (and sometimes first name too) thriving, especially in the Kingdom of Navarre, and spreading out to Castile and other Spanish regions. Alfonso Irigoyen believed it to derive from the Basque adjective garze(a) meaning "young", whose modern form is gaztea or gaztia. Ramón Menéndez Pidal and Antonio Tovar suggested it may come from the Basque word (H)artz, meaning "(the) Bear". A third etymology suggests it may derive from the Basque words "Gazte Hartz, meaning "(the) young bear". Variant forms of the name include Garcicea, Gartzi, Gartzia, Gartze, Garsea, and Gastea. The original Basque form with an affricate sibilant (/ts/, Basque spelling tz) evolved in Spanish to the current form. There are Gasconic cognates of Garcia like Gassie and Gassion (Béarn, Gassio 14th century, real name of Edith Piaf, born Edith Gassion). Other theories suggest that García is of Germanic origin and may derive from wars meaning young warrior or the Visigothic words garxa and garcha meaning graceful prince.

Popularity

García is the most common surname in Spain (where 3.32% of the population is named García) and also the second most common surname in Mexico. In the 1990 United States Census, Garcia was the 18th most reported surname, accounting for 0.25% of the population. It has become more common since then, jumping to eighth place in 2000. Garcia was quite rare before the First World War in France, except in the French Pays Basque, but became the 14th most common surname in France (and the eighth for the number of births between 1966 and 1990) due to Spanish immigration. It ranked second in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur for the number of births 1966–1990.

Geographical distribution

As of 2014, 33.2% of all known bearers of the surname García were residents of Mexico (frequency 1:35), 14.1% of Spain (1:31), 8.4% of the United States (1:402), 6.0% of Colombia (1:74), 4.6% of Venezuela (1:62), 4.4% of Brazil (1:435), 4.1% of the Philippines (1:230), 3.9% of Guatemala (1:39), 3.0% of Argentina (1:134), 2.8% of Cuba (1:38), 2.8% of Peru (1:105), 1.8% of Ecuador (1:83), 1.7% of Honduras (1:48), 1.5% of the Dominican Republic (1:64), 1.4% of Nicaragua (1:41), 1.2% of El Salvador (1:47) and 1.1% of France (1:576). In Spain, the frequency of the surname was higher than average (1:31) in the following regions: In Mexico, the frequency of the surname was higher than average (1:35) in the following states:

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