Explore the Family Name Penafiel

The meaning of Penafiel

1. Spanish (Peñafiel): habitational name from a place called Peñafiel in Valladolid province. 2. Portuguese: habitational name from a place called Penafiel in Porto district.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Penafiel has grown significantly in popularity from 2000 to 2010. In the year 2000, Penafiel was ranked 33,425th, and by 2010 it had climbed to 22,235th, marking a substantial increase of 33.48%. In terms of raw numbers, there were 644 individuals with the surname Penafiel in 2000, which rose to 1,160 in 2010 — an impressive growth of 80.12%. The proportion of individuals named Penafiel per 100,000 people also increased from 0.24 to 0.39 during the same period, representing a 62.5% change.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#33,425	#22,235	33.48%
Count	644	1,160	80.12%
Proportion per 100k	0.24	0.39	62.5%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Penafiel

Regarding the ethnic identity associated with the surname Penafiel, the Decennial U.S. Census data provides insightful information. In 2000, 81.06% of the bearers of this surname identified as Hispanic, and this figure increased slightly to 86.55% in 2010. The percentage identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander dropped from 11.34% in 2000 to 7.24% in 2010. Similarly, those identifying as White decreased from 7.14% to 5.17% over the same period. A new category emerged in 2010, with 0.78% of Penafiels identifying as belonging to two or more races. There were no respondents who identified as Black or American Indian and Alaskan Native in either census year.

	2000	2010	Change
Hispanic	81.06%	86.55%	6.77%
Asian/Pacific Islander	11.34%	7.24%	-36.16%
White	7.14%	5.17%	-27.59%
Two or More Races	0%	0.78%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%