The project

The Costa Rica Surname Map was born as an extension of the MappaDeiCognomi.it project, with the same purpose: to satisfy the curiosity of anyone who wants to know how surnames are distributed across Costa Rican territory. The site shows how family names are spread across the seven provinces — San José, Alajuela, Cartago, Heredia, Guanacaste, Puntarenas and Limón — and offers a different view of the roots and the history behind each one.

A surname is far more than a label: it is a deep link to our identity and our family. It holds the memory of our ancestors and the mark they leave across the generations. Understanding how a surname is distributed, discovering the areas where it is most common, working out whether it has several origins or is instead genuinely rare — these are all things that feed our curiosity about a word that stays with us for life.

Data source

The surname maps were built by processing records from telephone directories dating to the beginning of the twenty-first century. That work of collection and analysis makes it possible to reconstruct a reasonably precise picture of how surnames were distributed in that period, revealing interesting patterns in the way they cluster and disperse across the country, from the Central Valley to the Pacific and Caribbean coasts.

It is worth stressing that the results do not reflect the changes that have taken place since then, and do not include families who had no landline at the time. Despite these limits, the database remains a valuable source of information on the geographical distribution of surnames in a specific historical period.

Over time, new technologies and the shift to mobile networks have changed the way people communicate, which has left this kind of database somewhat out of date. The main aim, however — exploring the origins and history of surnames — remains one of the pillars of the project, and keeps it relevant for anyone who wants to look deeper into their family and cultural roots.

The Costa Rica Surname Map is not only a useful tool for finding out where a surname is concentrated: it is also an invitation to explore the cultural variety of the country, where the Spanish inheritance, that of the indigenous peoples and that of the Afro-Caribbean communities of the Atlantic coast live side by side.