Mejía (surname)

Mejía is a Spanish surname. Several theories exist as to its origins and etymology. The prevailing belief is that the name has Galician origins. The surname is most common in Spain and Latin American countries, including Colombia and Mexico.

For other uses, see Mejia (disambiguation).
Mejia
Origin
Word/nameSpanish, possibly Arabic or Hebrew
MeaningPossibly a religious byname, from a vernacular form of the Latin Messias[1][2]
Region of originSpain
Other names
Variant form(s)Mejías, Megía/Megías, Mexía/Mexías
The seal of the Mejía Canton in Northern Ecuador.

Etymology

The surname may have originated as a toponym for the town of Muxia in Galicia, an autonomous community in north-western Spain.[3][4] Another idea is that the word "Mexia" used to mean "medicine" in an old variant of Spanish, and that this is where the surname came from.

One common belief is that the name may have Sephardic origins, from when the Spanish Kingdom forced Jewish settlers to change their surname to Castillian. The translation of the surname for "Messiah" would then become the name "Mesía".[5] However, the Spanish people who travelled to the Spanish colonies in South America were not allowed to be Jewish or to have any Jewish or Muslim ancestors, and thus this explanation may not account for the popularity of the surname in modern-day Latin America.

Note that Mexía is the older Spanish spelling of the name. In the modern orthography of Spain, the spelling is Mejía, though in Mexico the older orthography is still considered correct. (Similarly, until recently Spaniards rendered the country name Méjico rather than México, though this has reversed in recent decades out of deference to Mexico).

Geographical distribution

As of 2014, 23.7% of all known bearers of the surname Mejía were residents of Mexico (frequency 1:450), 16.2% of Colombia (1:253), 14.4% of Honduras (1:53), 8.0% of Guatemala (1:172), 6.5% of the Dominican Republic (1:138), 6.3% of the United States (1:4,915), 6.3% of El Salvador (1:86), 4.7% of Peru (1:583), 2.9% of Ecuador (1:475), 2.8% of Nicaragua (1:185), 2.5% of the Philippines (1:3,461), 2.0% of Venezuela (1:1,266) and 1.8% of Bolivia (1:510).

In Spain, the frequency of the surname was higher than national average (1:5,678) in the following autonomous communities:

In Honduras, the frequency of the surname was higher than national average (1:53) in the following departments:[6]

Popularity in Colombia

The surname is a popular last name in Colombia, especially its Paisa region. According to the book "Genealogies of Antioquia and Caldas" by Gabriel Arango Mejía, the first Spaniard to bring the name to Colombia was a man named Don Juan Mejía de Tobar Montoya.[7]

People

Mejía, Mejia

Mejías, Mejias

Mexía, Mexia
  • Alvaro Mexia, a 17th-century Spanish explorer and cartographer of the east coast of Florida
  • José Antonio Mexía (1800–1839), Mexican politician
  • Ynés Mexía (1870-1938), Mexican American botanist and explorer

References
  1. http://www.4crests.com/mejia-coat-of-arms.html
  2. http://www.ancestry.com/facts/Mejia-family-history.ashx
  3. https://www.geni.com/surnames/mejia
  4. http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.fc/qx/mejia-family-crest.htm
  5. https://www.scribd.com/doc/6078304/Apellidos-Sefarditas
  6. Mejía surname distribution
  7. Gabriel Arango Mejía (1973). Genealogícas de Antioquía y Caldas: 3. ed. Bedout.
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