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Parent’s name

Gonzalez

Son of Gonzalo — Spanish patronymic (Visigothic personal name).

Confidence
High
US frequency
Rank 13 · 828,405 people
Common variants
González, Gonzales, Gonsalez

The short story

Gonzalez is Spanish for "son of Gonzalo." Gonzalo is an old Iberian personal name with Visigothic (Germanic) roots; once it was a common given name, the -ez patronymic froze it into one of the Spanish-speaking world's most frequent family names.

It is a parent's-name surname, parallel to Rodríguez or Martínez. Spellings without the accent (Gonzalez) or with z/s swaps (Gonzales) are the same name in US records. You do not need a single famous Gonzalo ancestor to explain why so many unrelated lines share the spelling.

Also seen as: González, Gonzales, Gonsalez

Sources used