Explore the Family Name Guatemala

The meaning of Guatemala

Hispanic and Amerindian (mainly Mexico, El Salvador, and Nicaragua): ethnic name from Guatemala, a country of Central America named from Nahuatl (Aztec) Cuauhtemallan ‘place of many trees’.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Guatemala in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname 'Guatemala' has significantly increased in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it ranked 68,172 in terms of popularity and by 2010, it had risen to rank 40,856, marking a 40.07% increase. The count of individuals bearing the surname also nearly doubled, from 270 in 2000 to 534 in 2010, a growth rate of 97.78%. Consequently, the proportion per 100,000 people with this surname saw an 80% increase, going from 0.1 in 2000 to 0.18 in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#68,172	#40,856	40.07%
Count	270	534	97.78%
Proportion per 100k	0.1	0.18	80%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Guatemala

When looking at the ethnicity of people with the surname 'Guatemala', data from the Decennial U.S. Census shows that in both 2000 and 2010, the majority identified as Hispanic. The percentage of individuals identifying as Hispanic increased slightly from 97.04% in 2000 to 99.06% in 2010. In contrast, those identifying as American Indian and Alaskan Native dropped from 1.85% in 2000 to virtually none in 2010. There were no changes or counts for other ethnic identities such as Asian/Pacific Islander, White, Black, and those who identify with two or more races during these years. This suggests that the surname 'Guatemala' is predominantly associated with the Hispanic ethnicity.

	2000	2010	Change
Hispanic	97.04%	99.06%	2.08%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Two or More Races	0%	0%	0%
White	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	1.85%	0%	-100%