Explore the Family Name Spera

The meaning of Spera

1. Italian (southern): nickname from spera ‘ray of light’, also used as a personal name. 2. Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Spiro. Some characteristic forenames: Italian Salvatore, Angelo, Antonio, Vittorio, Attilio, Carina, Carlo, Carmine, Costantino, Francesca, Giuseppe, Lorenzo.

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

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

The surname "Spera" has seen a slight decrease in popularity, ranking 17,334th in the year 2000 and slipping to 18,144th a decade later in 2010, according to data from the Decennial U.S. Census. Despite this drop in rank, the actual count of individuals with the Spera surname rose slightly, from 1,503 in 2000 to 1,534 in 2010, an increase of 2.06%. However, when considered as a proportion per 100,000 people, the prevalence of the surname fell by 7.14%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#17,334	#18,144	-4.67%
Count	1,503	1,534	2.06%
Proportion per 100k	0.56	0.52	-7.14%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Spera

In terms of ethnic identity, most individuals carrying the Spera surname identified as White in both the 2000 and 2010 Decennial U.S. Census data, accounting for 96.94% and 96.61% respectively. The second largest group identified as Hispanic, making up 1.80% of the population in 2000 and decreasing slightly to 1.76% in 2010. There was a notable shift among those identifying as Black, which increased from 0% in 2000 to 0.59% in 2010. Those who identified as Asian/Pacific Islander or American Indian and Alaskan Native were relatively few, with the former group disappearing entirely between 2000 and 2010. Individuals identifying with two or more races also decreased from 0.73% in 2000 to 0.52% in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.94%	96.61%	-0.34%
Hispanic	1.8%	1.76%	-2.22%
Black	0%	0.59%	0%
Two or More Races	0.73%	0.52%	-28.77%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.33%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%