Lapa
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in Spanish: limpet
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/lapa/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Lapa is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Brazil than in any other country.
- PEPeru≈1 in 5.5K(inferred from the name graph)
- BRBrazil1 in 20K
- PTPortugal≈1 in 10K
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.
- Brazil (measured from records)
- Sources
- 110 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 5.5K (inferred from the name graph)
10,515 people
Highest-authority source
Peru, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
habitational name for someone from any of the numerous places called Lapa, from lapa ‘cavern’, or from the Marian name Senhora da Lapa.
Sources 1
- Dictionary of American Family Names
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
How Lapa is read(measured from records)
Lapa is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 3 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.
- Spanish52%
limpet
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Portuguese25%
grotto; cave, especially one used as shelter
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- English8.5%
An open structure in South Africa, typically a thatched roof supported by wooden poles.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.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)
Lapa 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.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BR Brazil | #813 | 10,515 | 1 in 20K | 11K | Lapa | 110 |
| PE Peru | #782 | ≈5,800 est. | ≈1 in 5.5K | — | Lapa | 54 |
| IN India | — | ≈4,500 est. | ≈1 in 292K | 1 | Lapa | 4 |
| PT Portugal | #522 | ≈1,000 est. | ≈1 in 10K | — | Lapa | 75 |
| PH Philippines | — | ≈870 est. | ≈1 in 125K | — | Lapa | 16 |
| SV El Salvador | — | ≈120 est. | ≈1 in 54K | — | Lapa | 7 |
| EE Estonia | — | ≈16 est. | ≈1 in 78K | 17 | — | 1 |
10,515 people counted by IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname). 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: IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls); Statistics Estonia — per-name Population Register counts (nimed). 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 recorded senses(measured from records)
Lapa is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
habitational name for someone from any of the numerous places called Lapa, from lapa ‘cavern’, or from the Marian name Senhora da Lapa.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
nickname from Polish lapa ‘paw’, ‘flipper’, ‘mutton fist’.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
Kilmė neaiški. Plg. Lapas, Lopas, LSpė (žr.)
as a nameLietuvių pavardžių žodynas (Dictionary of Lithuanian Surnames)
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)
- Mārtiņš Lapab. 1846LVLatvian writer and journalist (1846-1909)
- Eduarda Lapab. 1895PTPortuguese painter (1895-1976)
- Querubim Lapab. 1925PTPortuguese painter (1925-2016)
- Valentyn Lapab. 1939UAUkrainian mathematician
- Álvaro Lapab. 1939PTPortuguese painter (1939-2006)
- Fernanda Lapab. 1943PTPortuguese actor (1943-2020)
- Carlos Lapab. 1944BRBrazilian politician
- Vítor Lapab. 1960PTbadminton player
- Carla Lapab. 1976BRBrazilian politician
- Joaquina LapinhaBRnot in their usual nameBrazilian opera singer
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).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 29 sources across 17 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 11K | #1,269 |
| EE Estonia | Statistics Estonia — per-name Population Register counts (nimed) | — | 17 | #6,696 |
| EE Estonia | Statistics Estonia — per-name Population Register counts (nimed) | — | 10 | #10,572 |
Reference works 6
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Lietuvių kalbos institutas — Lietuvių pavardžių žodynas (Lithuanian surname dictionary)
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Lietuvių pavardžių žodynas (Dictionary of Lithuanian Surnames)
- Cognomix.it (Nomix s.r.l.) — Italian surname origin dictionary
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 Lapa come from?
- habitational name for someone from any of the numerous places called Lapa, from lapa ‘cavern’, or from the Marian name Senhora da Lapa. Recorded by Dictionary of American Family Names.
- How do you pronounce Lapa?
- A machine transcription gives /lapa/ (IPA) for Spanish.
- What does the name Lapa mean?
- In Spanish, limpet
- In which country does Lapa have the most bearers?
- In Brazil, the national register counted about 11 thousand people named Lapa, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled lapa.
- How common is the name Lapa?
- In Brazil, the national register counted 10,515 people named Lapa, about 1 in 20 thousand residents.
- How common is Lapa compared with other names?
- In Brazil, Lapa is the 813th most common surname of 424,864 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Lapa?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/lapaThe 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), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
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, “Lapa” — the 813th most common surname in Brazil. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.