Explore the Family Name Joya

The meaning of Joya

1. Spanish: nickname from joya ‘piece of jewelry’, or a habitational name from any of several minor places called (La) Joya in southern Spain. 2. Catalan: nickname from joia ‘joy’. Some characteristic forenames: Spanish Jose, Juan, Pedro, Alejandro, Ana Julia, Carlos, Jorge, Jose Raul, Luis, Manuel, Mauricio, Rafael.

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

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

Based on the data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Joya has seen a significant rise in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it was ranked 14,995 but by 2010, it had jumped to 11,204 marking a change of over 25%. The count of people with the Joya surname increased by nearly 56% during this period, moving from 1,809 to 2,821. This increase in popularity is also reflected in its proportion per 100k, which rose by 43.28% from 0.67 to 0.96.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#14,995	#11,204	25.28%
Count	1,809	2,821	55.94%
Proportion per 100k	0.67	0.96	43.28%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Joya

The ethnicity connected with the surname Joya as per the Decennial U.S. Census data shows some shifts between 2000 and 2010. The majority identified as Hispanic, increasing slightly from 87.23% in 2000 to 90.25% in 2010. The representation of those identifying as White decreased notably from 6.08% to 3.93%, while Asian/Pacific Islander identification also dropped from 5.09% to 4.11%. Notably, there was an emergence of individuals who identified as Black in 2010, whereas there were none in 2000. However, there was no representation of American Indian and Alaskan Native in either year, and the category of two or more races was only present in 2000, disappearing entirely by 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Hispanic	87.23%	90.25%	3.46%
Asian/Pacific Islander	5.09%	4.11%	-19.25%
White	6.08%	3.93%	-35.36%
Black	0%	0.85%	0%
Two or More Races	1%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%