Surname map of CAMPBELL

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Surname: CAMPBELL

Origin of the Campbell surname

The surname Campbell reached Costa Rica with Afro-Antillean immigration in the late nineteenth century. Construction of the railway to the Caribbean began in 1871 under the American Minor Cooper Keith, and the scale of the works made it necessary to hire foreign labour: on 20 December 1872 the schooner Lizzie docked at Limón, arriving from Kingston with the first contingent of Jamaican workers. In the years that followed came migrants from Barbados, Curaçao, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Vincent, Saint Lucia and New Orleans. Once the railway was completed in 1890, most of them stayed on in the province of Limón, working on the United Fruit Company's banana plantations. Like the rest of the Afro-Caribbean community, these families lived for decades in a situation of exclusion — they did not obtain full Costa Rican citizenship until 1949 — and kept English, Jamaican patois and the Protestant faith alongside Spanish.

Meaning of the Campbell surname

Campbell is a Scottish surname of Gaelic origin and descriptive in type: it comes from "cam beul", literally "crooked mouth", a nickname given to the founder of the line. The Campbell clan, seated in Argyll, was one of the most powerful in the Scottish Highlands. Its presence in the Caribbean derives from Scottish emigration to the West Indies and from the names adopted on the plantations.

Distribution of the Campbell surname in Costa Rica

According to the count of surnames in the electoral roll of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Campbell ranks 521st among the most frequent surnames in Costa Rica, with 1,243 entries, corresponding to 0.01% of all surnames recorded in the roll.

Notable people with the Campbell surname

Notable people bearing the surname Campbell include:

• Epsy Campbell Barr - Costa Rican economist and politician born in 1963, granddaughter of Jamaican migrants; Vice President of the Republic between 2018 and 2022, the first woman of African descent to hold that office anywhere in the Americas. She was also Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship, a member of parliament for two terms and founder of the Centre of Afro-Costa Rican Women.
• Shirley Campbell Barr - Afro-Costa Rican anthropologist, poet and activist, sister of Epsy Campbell; her poem "Rotundamente negra" (1994) has become a symbol of movements of women of African descent throughout Latin America.
• Joel Campbell - Costa Rican footballer, an international forward with the national team at three World Cups; he played for Arsenal in England and for several European clubs.