Mejía (surname)

The first written record of the surname being used is in the marriage of a Galician man named García Sánchez de Mejías to the daughter of Juan Sánchez de Mendoza, brother of Don Lope de Mendoza, Archbishop of Compostela.^[1]

The surname may have originated as a toponym for the towns of either Mesía or Muxía in Galicia.^[2]

According to "El Blasonario de la Consanguinidad Ibérica" (The Armorial of the Iberian Consanguinity) by genealogists Ampelio Alonso de Cadenas and Don Vicente de Cadenas y Vicent, Mejia is described as having been brought to Galicia and León by Sevillians who escaped to the mountainous northern provinces amidst the Moorish invasions of southern Spain. Prior to this, the bearers of the name had lived in Seville since Visigoth and Roman times. After the Reconquista, some returned to Seville.^[3]

Note that Mexía is the older Spanish spelling of the name. In the modern orthography of Spain, the spelling is Mejía, though in Mexico the older orthography is still considered correct. Similarly, until recently Spaniards rendered the country name Méjico rather than México, though this has reversed in recent decades out of deference to Mexico.

As of 2014, 23.7% of all known bearers of the surname Mejía were residents of Mexico (frequency 1:450), 16.2% of Colombia (1:253), 14.4% of Honduras (1:53), 8.0% of Guatemala (1:172), 6.5% of the Dominican Republic (1:138), 6.3% of the United States (1:4,915), 6.3% of El Salvador (1:86), 4.7% of Peru (1:583), 2.9% of Ecuador (1:475), 2.8% of Nicaragua (1:185), 2.5% of the Philippines (1:3,461), 2.0% of Venezuela (1:1,266) and 1.8% of Bolivia (1:510).

In Spain, the frequency of the surname was higher than national average (1:5,678) in the following autonomous communities:

• 1. Community of Madrid (1:2,644)
• 2. Castilla–La Mancha (1:3,787)
• 3. Catalonia (1:4,083)
• 4. Navarre (1:5,176)
• 5. Balearic Islands (1:5,189)
• 6. La Rioja (1:5,296)

In Honduras, the frequency of the surname was higher than national average (1:53) in the following departments:^[4]

• 1. Ocotepeque Department (1:19)
• 2. Copán Department (1:31)
• 3. La Paz Department (1:32)
• 4. Santa Bárbara Department (1:40)
• 5. Comayagua Department (1:40)
• 6. Cortés Department (1:43)
• 7. Lempira Department (1:44)
• 8. Colón Department (1:49)
• 9. Atlántida Department (1:50)
• 10. Yoro Department (1:52)