Santos

surname · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Santos is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the Philippines than in any other country, where it is the 7th most common surname. In Portuguese, recorded as masculine plural of santo.

rarermore common
  • PTPortugal≈1 in 40(inferred from the name graph)
  • DODominican Republic≈1 in 75
  • UYUruguay≈1 in 127

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

Philippines (inferred from the name graph)

≈410,000 people, est.

#15 (measured from records)

of 19M surnames

4 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
514 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 40 (inferred from the name graph)

Portugal, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

SantosLatin(measured from records)
СантосCyrillic(measured from records)
ΣαντοςGreek(measured from records)
산토스Hangul(measured from records)

3 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

Religious name meaning ‘Saints’, a name chosen to invoke the protection of all the saints for a son.

Sources 1

  • A concise dictionary of first names

Attested across 11 languages in the etymology graph.

How Santos is read(measured from records)

Santos is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

  • Portuguese87%

    masculine plural of santo

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • Spanish7.1%

    Plural de Santo; nombre dado a nacidos el 1 de noviembre.

    as a nameDiccionario etimológico de nombres propios

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Santos counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Santos is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
PH Philippines#7≈410,000 est.≈1 in 269—Santos197
PT Portugal#2≈250,000 est.≈1 in 40—Santos293
AO Angola#2≈180,000 est.≈1 in 183—Santos91
DO Dominican Republic#4≈140,000 est.≈1 in 75—Santos137
US United States#344137,2321 in 2.4K144KSantos514
HN Honduras#18≈44,000 est.≈1 in 212—Santos74
UY Uruguay#5≈27,000 est.≈1 in 127—Santos111

Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Santos is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • English surname70 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Philippines, United Kingdom, Australia

    Languages: English, German, Dutch

    Also written Santoes, Santós, Santo-S, Säntös, Sántos

  • French surname5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, Philippines, United States, Belgium

    Also written Sàntos, Santõs, Säntös

  • a separate name6 spellings in the group

    Also written Santo-S, Santōṣ, Såntos, Sántos

  • Indonesian surname10 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Indonesia, Philippines, United States, Peru

    Also written Säntös, Santo'S, Śănťos, Sàntos, Šäńtöš

101 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Santos is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • Religious name meaning ‘Saints’, a name chosen to invoke the protection of all the saints for a son.

    as a nameA concise dictionary of first names

  • In English, From Spanish/Portuguese personal name dos Santos, short for Todos los Santos ‘all the saints’; or person from places named Santos.

    as a nameEncyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

  • Catholic inspiration

    as a nameDicionario Sefaradi De SobrenomesDictionary Of Sephardic Surnames Inclusive Cristaos-Novos, Conversos, Marranos, Italianos,…

  • In English, city, Brazil

    as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

1850190019502000Alberto Santos-Dumont, b. 1873Sérgio Mendes, b. 1941Juan Manuel Santos, b. 1951Fernando Santos, b. 1954José Mourinho, b. 1963Emilio Butragueño, b. 1963Dante, b. 1983João Moutinho, b. 1986Ramires, b. 1987Neymar, b. 1992
  • Alberto Santos-Dumontb. 1873BRBrazilian aviation pioneer (1873-1932)
  • Sérgio Mendesb. 1941BRnot in their usual nameBrazilian musician (1941–2024)
  • Juan Manuel Santosb. 1951COpresident of Colombia from 2010 to 2018
  • Fernando Santosb. 1954PTPortuguese football manager
  • José Mourinhob. 1963PTnot in their usual namePortuguese association football manager and former player
  • Emilio Butragueñob. 1963ESnot in their usual nameSpanish footballer
  • Danteb. 1983BRnot in their usual nameBrazilian association football player
  • João Moutinhob. 1986PTnot in their usual namePortuguese association football player (born 1986)
  • Ramiresb. 1987BRnot in their usual nameBrazilian association football player (born 1987)
  • Neymarb. 1992BRnot in their usual nameBrazilian footballer (born 1992)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 96 sources across 46 countries.

Official registers attesting Santos
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20202020144K#190
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010137K#206
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000200099K#279

Reference works 7

  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

Where does the name Santos come from?
Religious name meaning ‘Saints’, a name chosen to invoke the protection of all the saints for a son. Recorded by A concise dictionary of first names.
What does the name Santos mean?
In Portuguese, masculine plural of santo
In which country does Santos have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 406 thousand people named Santos in the Philippines, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled santos.
How common is the name Santos?
In the United States, the national register counted 137,232 people named Santos in 2010, about 1 in 2.4 thousand residents.
How common is Santos compared with other names?
In the Philippines, Santos is the 7th most common surname of 876,464 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Santos?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/santos

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), and bulk access is licensed separately.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Santos” — the 7th most common surname in Philippines. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Santos parses inside a full name →