Where might my last name come from, its sort of a weird one?

Question

Ok so Im mexican american but my family is pretty white, my dad has brown hair and green eyes, my grandpa had blonde hair and blue eyes and so did his dad and I have dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes and I was wondering if my last name is european. My last name is Razo and people always tell me its a weird last name and I dont see how its so weird because its only four letters. Im guessing maybe italian because so many italians have "z" in their names but I have not idea actualy.

Answer 1

To add to the information already given, Galicia is in the northwest corner of Spain--north of Portugal.  Its name reflects the fact that Celts lived there in ancient times.  Andalusia is the southermost province (if that's the right word) of Spain but derives its name from the Vandals, a tribe of German barbarians who blazed through the region in the fifth century A. D. after they sacked Rome  (as the Gauls, another Celtic group, had done about 800 years earlier).  You could get your fair coloring from either of those groups.

Ted, I wish you'd been online when I posted my question about Joshua Wood a few weeks ago!  Even if I didn't get an answer, I might have found the material for a novel!

Answer 2

I think you should listen to almost all of the other participants...they're on the money...HOO-RAY...

Answer 3

http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.c...

has 384 entries for the surname. If you check the "Omit blanks" box next to birthplace, it goes down to 80.

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/f...

has 194 entries with the "Exact Spelling" box checked.

Your last name came from Italy or Spain. Whether your father's father's father came from there is anyone's guess. Your skin and eye color make it sound like your 3rd great grandfather was a dashing Polish officer in lancer regiment who wooed the wrong woman (she didn't tell him she was married) and had to move out quickly, changing his name from Razokonovitch to Razo and working his way to Mexico on  tramp freighter that smelled strongly of bananas.

He probably found a job in a brewery run by German emigres, making clean, crisp, strongly hopped beer to go with those little double tacos they make with chicken, beef or pork. A hard-working man can eat a dozen of them and down half a dozen bottles of good Mexican beer. Nothing like an 18-course meal at the end of the day.

He probably married a senorita with flashing dark eyes and hair as black and glossy as a raven's wing. Some of his children looked like him, some like her. Late at night he would sometimes wish she was a blond, then he'd remember that jealous husband back in Poland, who could clip the pips out of the five of clubs with five shots at 30 paces, and be glad she wasn't.

The only way to tell is to trace your family history.

Answer 4

Razo: "Galician: perhaps a habitational name from Razo in A Coruña province, Galicia. However, the concentration of the surname in Andalusia suggests that another source should be sought." (Galicia and Andalusia are in Spain)

Most immigrants who came to the U.S. with the last name Razo came from Italy--and most left from the port in Naples

Answer 5

This is what www.ancestry.com has to say about the name,

Razo Name Meaning and History

Galician: perhaps a habitational name from Razo in A Coruña province, Galicia. However, the concentration of the surname in Andalusia suggests that another source should be sought.

hope this helps.