Meaning of Last Name

García is a surname common throughout the Americas, the Philippines and Spain. There are several theories about its origin and history, but it is probably of Basque origin. It is attested since the high Middle Ages north and south of the Pyrenees (Basque speaking domain), with the surname (sometimes first name too) thriving especially on the Kingdom of Navarre and spreading out to Castile and other Spanish regions. The meaning points to the descriptive adjective 'the young' (variants Gartzi, Gartzia, Gartze, Gastea, modern Basque "gaztea"/"gaztia"). It is a surname of patronymic origin (Garcia was a very common first name in early medieval Spain). García is the most common surname in Spain (where 3.32% of population is named García) and also the second most common surname in Cuba. It has become common in the United States due to substantial Latin American immigration, and is now the 8th most common surname in the U.S. In the 1990 United States Census, 'Garcia' was the eighteenth most reported surname, accounting for 0.25% of the population. García is also the third most common surname amongst Spaniards in the United Kingdom.