why are there only like 10 mexican surnames?

Question

why are all the same mexican last names so big and widespread? I am Anglo and went to a highschool that was close to 50/50 (in Arizona)

Now its common to see multiple, say, "Smiths" or "Johnsons" etc, but there are also a ton of weird white last names that you only ever see one family with. Same for Asians or Black folks. As a "Carlson" my name is fairly bland but its still uncommon to ever meet another one, I've met 3 or 4 outside of my family amongst everyone I've met in my life

So my question is why do you see tons and tons of people named Lopez, Cardenas, Hernandez, Fernandez, Martinez, Coronado, Gonzales, Gomez, like so many Mexican people with not that many last names

If you took a yearbook from my highschool and looked at any year for anyone of those common last names, you could find like 10 kids in a row with the same last name, but they aren't even related to eachother

I am not trying to be judgmental or say that is bad or anything I just want to know why that is that way?

Answer 1

This is funny, because most other cultures feel the same way about English names. They see all the people with the last names of Smith, Williams, Jones, Johnson, Jackson, Brown, Miller, Davis, Moore, and Wilson and they think we all have the same names. Many of them are not related to one another. Truth is that this is not really a Mexican thing at all. They have thousands of surnames just like we do. You just probably don't recognize the less popular ones, just like they don't recognize ours.

Answer 2

doesnt it all have to do with where they first got there surname

plus all i believe name ending with "ez" or "es" means son of...so like martinez...son of martin and such

but you cant really get on someones case when they had no choice over it

btw....my surname is cardona.....i havent met another cardona in all my life...

Answer 3

I don't know but I do know that 'Gomez' derives from 'Jones' and originates from the Welsh colonies in south america.