Explore the Family Name Spanos

The meaning of Spanos

Greek: descriptive nickname from Greek spanos ‘clean shaven, hairless’. In Greek this term is often compounded with a personal name, e.g. Spanovassilis ‘Basil the hairless’, Spanomanolis ‘Emanuel the hairless’, etc. Some characteristic forenames: Greek Spyros, Christos, Isidoros, Stergios, Anastasios, Angeliki, Argyrios, Costas, Dimitrios, Eleftherios, Gerasimos, Konstantinos.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname Spanos has seen a slight decrease in rank from 19,313 in 2000 to 19,489 in 2010, reflecting a minor change of -0.91. Despite this drop in rank, the count of individuals with the surname Spanos increased by 6.78 percent during the same period, from 1,298 to 1,386. However, when considering the proportion per 100k people, there was a slight decrease of -2.08 percent.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#19,313	#19,489	-0.91%
Count	1,298	1,386	6.78%
Proportion per 100k	0.48	0.47	-2.08%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Spanos

Turning to ethnic identity, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals that the majority of individuals bearing the surname Spanos identify as White, accounting for 95.22 percent in 2000 and increasing slightly to 95.53 percent in 2010. There was a significant increase in those identifying as Hispanic, rising by 72.02 percent from 2000 to 2010. Conversely, those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander and those claiming two or more races saw decreases of 37.68 percent and 64.20 percent respectively. The data showed no individuals with the surname Spanos identifying as Black or American Indian and Alaskan Native in either year.

	2000	2010	Change
White	95.22%	95.53%	0.33%
Hispanic	1.93%	3.32%	72.02%
Two or More Races	1.62%	0.58%	-64.2%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.69%	0.43%	-37.68%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%