Padilla
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in Spanish: minor places, for example in the provinces of Burgos, Gua¬ dalajara, and Valladolid, so called from Sp. padilla fryingpan, breadpan (L patella, a dim
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/padiʝa/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Padilla is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In Honduras it is the 17th most common surname.
- HNHonduras≈1 in 212(inferred from the name graph)
- COColombia≈1 in 810
- PHPhilippines≈1 in 1.2K
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.
- United States (measured from records)
- #584 (measured from records)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 455 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 212 (inferred from the name graph)
105,365 people, 2010
of 19M surnames
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Honduras, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
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)
‘Person from Padilla’, a place-name in Spain meaning ‘frying pan’, denoting a settlement in a shallow depression.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
How Padilla is read(measured from records)
Padilla 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.
- Spanish63%
minor places, for example in the provinces of Burgos, Gua¬ dalajara, and Valladolid, so called from Sp. padilla fryingpan, breadpan (L patella, a dim. of patina shallow dish), a word which was commonly used in the topographical sense of a gentle depression. Pagram see Pilgrim
as a nameThe Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles
- English24%
‘Person from Padilla’, a place-name in Spain meaning ‘frying pan’, denoting a settlement in a shallow depression.
as a nameEncyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
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)
Padilla 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #803 | 105,365 | 1 in 3.2K | 105K | Padilla | 455 |
| PH Philippines | #104 | ≈89,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.2K | — | Padilla | 120 |
| CO Colombia | #123 | ≈61,000 est. | ≈1 in 810 | 31 | Padilla | 160 |
| HN Honduras | #17 | ≈44,000 est. | ≈1 in 212 | — | Padilla | 76 |
| ID Indonesia | — | ≈42,000 est. | ≈1 in 6.4K | listed | Padilla | 51 |
| EC Ecuador | — | 26,508 | 1 in 638 | 27K | Padilla | 76 |
| BO Bolivia | — | ≈23,000 est. | ≈1 in 512 | — | Padilla | 58 |
| CR Costa Rica | — | 12,692 | 1 in 402 | 13K | — | 84 |
105,365 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010. 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; the co-datosgov-candidates register; INEC — civil registry names; TSE — electoral roll (padrón) names. 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).
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Mariano Padilla y Ramosb. 1843ESSpanish opera singer (1843–1906)
- José Padillab. 1889ESSpanish composer, pianist (1889-1960)
- David Padilla Arancibiab. 1927BOPresident of the military council of Bolivia (1927-2016)
- Heberto Padillab. 1932CUCuban poet (1932–2000)
- Tony Peñab. 1957DOnot in their usual nameDominican baseball player
- Robin Padillab. 1969PHFilipino actor and politician
- Alejandro García Padillab. 1971USgovernor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
- Alex Padillab. 1973USUnited States Senator from California since 2021
- Anthony Padillab. 1987USAmerican YouTuber, actor and producer
- Daniel Padillab. 1995PHFilipino actor and 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 39 sources across 24 countries.
Reference works 4
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- 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 Padilla come from?
- ‘Person from Padilla’, a place-name in Spain meaning ‘frying pan’, denoting a settlement in a shallow depression. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- How do you pronounce Padilla?
- A machine transcription gives /padiʝa/ (IPA) for Spanish.
- What does the name Padilla mean?
- In Spanish, minor places, for example in the provinces of Burgos, Gua¬ dalajara, and Valladolid, so called from Sp. padilla fryingpan, breadpan (L patella, a dim.
- In which country does Padilla have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 105 thousand people named Padilla, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled padilla.
- How common is the name Padilla?
- In the United States, the national register counted 105,365 people named Padilla in 2010, about 1 in 3.2 thousand residents.
- How common is Padilla compared with other names?
- In the United States, Padilla is the 803rd most common surname of 6,282,806 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Padilla?
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/padillaThe 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, “Padilla” — the 803rd most common surname in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.