Where the name is found — from Cuéllar to Manila.
A Castilian name that is now far more common in the Americas than in Spain.
The Spanish-speaking world
Velázquez left Castile with the first generation of settlers and is now found in every Spanish-speaking country. It is especially common in Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic; in Central America, above all Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador; in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Chile, where the s-spelling prevails; and in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, where the z returns. In Spain itself it remains a well-established but not top-ranked surname, with a historic concentration in Castile and Andalusia.
The Philippines are the one large non-Spanish-speaking country where the name is native: Spanish surnames were assigned or adopted there under colonial rule, and Velasquez — always without the accent — is carried by figures as different as the singer Regine Velasquez, the comics pioneer Tony Velasquez and the parasitologist Carmen C. Velasquez.
The United States
Migration from Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America has made the United States one of the countries with the most bearers. The 2010 census counted 80,364 people named Velasquez (the 398th most common surname in the country) and 63,736 named Velazquez (530th), plus about 1,500 Velasques and Velazques — 145,626 in all, more than nine in ten of them Hispanic. Every earlier census shows the name rising; the next one will almost certainly place both main spellings in the top 500.
Places that carry the name
Streets, buildings and towns named Velázquez nearly all honour the painter or one of the conquistadors. In Madrid, the Calle de Velázquez runs through the Salamanca district; the Palacio de Velázquez in the Retiro park is named not after the painter but after its architect, Ricardo Velázquez Bosco; the Casa de Velázquez is the French academy of arts and letters in Spain; and a monument to the painter stands before the Prado. Seville, his birthplace, has its own Calle de Velázquez. In Paris the Avenue Vélasquez, with the French accent, leads into the Parc Monceau.
Further afield there is a village called Velázquez in the department of Rocha, Uruguay; a barrio of that name in Granadilla de Abona on Tenerife; the barrio of Boca Velázquez in Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico; and Tlalmanalco de Velázquez, the seat of the municipality of Tlalmanalco in the State of Mexico.
Where the people on this site come from
The 47 notable bearers profiled in this section were born in or are identified with the following countries:
- United States — 9 people
- Spain — 7 people
- Mexico — 7 people
- Venezuela — 3 people
- Philippines — 3 people
- Colombia — 3 people
- Puerto Rico / United States — 2 people
- Honduras — 2 people
- Panama / United States — 2 people
- United States (Puerto Rico) — 1 people
- Spain / Cuba — 1 people
- Mexico (Tenochtitlan) — 1 people
- Peru — 1 people
- Cuba / United States — 1 people
- Brazil — 1 people
- Spain / New Spain — 1 people
- Chile — 1 people
- New Spain (Sonora / the Californias) — 1 people
The Velasquez name
Profiles are compiled from public sources for general information. They are not affiliated with or endorsed by the people described. Corrections are welcome at carol@velasquez.info.
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