These are the most common Mexican last names beginning with W, ranked by how many people in Mexico have the name today.
Unlike most other letters where we have 70-80 names, here we just have six. The reason is simple: the letter is rare in Spanish.
Most names here are variants of other names starting with H, U, or V. I’ll explain each six in this article.
These rankings come from a database of over 1.25 million workers published by Mexico’s Ministry of Public Education.
A Short List of Names
| Last Name | Mexico Rank | U.S. Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Walle | 1,542 | 26,695 |
| Wario | 6,099 | |
| Wences | 2,793 | 33,695 |
| Wicab | 4,311 | |
| Wilchis | 6,775 | |
| Witrago | 6,775 | 86,645 |
Walle is a variant of the name Valle. The origins come from the Spanish word valle, which refers to a valley. Early bearers likely lived in valleys.
Wario is interesting in that it is mostly known as having African origins, specifically from Kenya.
Wences is a variant of Vences. The origins are Galician (northwest Spain). Some scholars say it has earlier Slavic origins.
Wicab is an indigineous Maya surname. It’s a variant of Uicab. The meaning comes from the Maya words for honey or a bee (cab). Early bearers may have come from areas rich with honeybees.
Wilchis is a variant of the name Vilchis. The Spanish origins are the town of Vilches in southern Spain.
Witrago is so rare that there is very little knowledge of the origins.
Notes About The List
The data comes from an open database of 1,256,438 federal education workers published by Mexico’s Secretaría de Educación Pública. The processed data is published on GitHub as mexican-names.
People in Mexico carry two surnames, the father’s followed by the mother’s. Our ranking uses the father’s surname, which is the one a person is normally known by.
Related lists
For surnames common among Hispanic Americans, see our list of Hispanic last names starting with W.
You can also use our surname ranking tool to check how a name ranked in the 2000 and 2010 U.S. censuses.
