García (surname)

Garcia, Gartzia or García is an Iberian surname common throughout Spain, Portugal, Andorra, the Americas, France[3] and the Philippines.

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 [es] believed it to derive from the Basque adjective garze(a) meaning "young", whose modern form is gaztea or gaztia.

[citation needed] Variant forms of the name include Garcicea, Gartzi, Gartzia, Gartze, Garsea, and Gastea.

[21] 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).