What We Know About the Ricardo Surname

Families named Ricardo carry a Spanish surname with a long history. Elsdon Smith's dictionary of American family names explains it as “descendant of Ricardo (rule, hard)”.

Surname origin

Like many surnames, it grew out of a personal name.

The Census Bureau's 2010 surname file lists Ricardo with 3,448 bearers, at rank 9,433. Of these, 66% identified as Hispanic or Latino. Between 1891 and 2000, 474 babies born in France were registered as Ricardo, with the most births in 1971–1980. Ricardo sounds close to Ricard and Ricardi, so it can help to search both.

Ricardo coat of arms

Heraldry is personal. Arms recorded for a Ricardo family belonged to that family, and other bearers of the name may have no link to them.

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