Arias Family Crest, Coat of Arms and Name History

Surname Meaning, Origin, and Etymology
According to several experts, the origin of the surname Arias is located in Spain during the middle age, however, this was the moment when the last name began to be used as a hereditary element of the full name of someone because its true genesis is much deeper into the past of this region. Arias real origin it may be around the 5th century when the Visigoths occupied the Iberian Peninsula until the 8th century, which is why is not rare to see a Germanic influence on the Spanish surnames of that time. Arias is a patronymic surname, one of the most popular kinds of surnames, it is derived from personal names such Arius, Ares or Aria, which were common in the Latin-speaker nations of the medieval age.

However, Arias may count on a second etymological origin, because it may come from the Roman word “Aro” which means “to plow” so it was possible that there was assigned to farmers, which would make it an occupational surname. Another possible occupation for Arias was the teaching, thanks to “Aro” could also mean “Skill”, therefore Arias could be used in its beginning by someone who offered knowledge to the people. The main location for the surname was Galicia, Spain, where long communities of Celts and Swabians formed their homes. The first record of a bearer of Arias belongs to Lucio Arias, a Captain and rich man that served under the orders of King Alfonso I of Aragón who reign from 1104 until 1134.

Spelling Variations
As it said before Arias is a Spanish surname but with a Germanic influence and two possible etymological origins, which means that it would definitely count on spelling variations. Actually, this phenomenon was nothing but common during the middle age, thanks to many reasons such as the mix of languages after all the wars and conquests, the wrong translations of words and surnames, the lack of grammatical rules in most of the languages, and the arbitrary way of writing of the scribes, who didn’t count on a general agreement at the moment of writing and just did it just based on how they hear the words. Many families used to do some little changes to their surnames to make them different than the one from other branches of the same family and start a new line by themselves. The common spelling variations of this surname are Arias, Arianiz, Areas, Ares and Aris.

Popularity & Geographic Distribution
Arias is a surname that counts on a regular popularity. According to the census of 2014, it is the 586th most common surname in the world and it counts on approximately 880,211 bearers. The country with the biggest amount of Arias is Colombia, followed by Mexico on second place and Argentina in third. The highest density of Arias is located in Costa Rica. All of these countries are Spanish-speakers nations, so it is not rare to see a well amount of Arias there because they were colonized by Spain, the original country of the surname.

Early Bearers of the Surname
Some of the old bearers of Arias were Bernaldino Arias who was a witness in a wedding on December 13, 1568 in Valladolid, Spain, Ana Arias who got married to Pedro Fernandez in Valladolid on November 8, 1648, Fernando Arias who became Christian at Alabece, Spain on August 24, 1800 and the same record also show his father Juan Arias, Pedro Arias a nobleman from Castile, Spain in the thirteenth century, Benito Arias Montano a scholar and translator from Spain in the sixteenth century, Alcántara Arias Pérez de Somoza in Galicia in 1381 and Martín and Rodrigo Arias who fought in Navas de Tolosa in 1212.

History, Genealogy, and Ancestry
There aren’t many records that show a genealogical tree of Arias and the ones we were able to find are very short and don’t offer many details. However, there is one that shows the family of Manuel Arias Landestoy who arrived in San Juan, Colombia at the beginning of the 20th century and got married to Eulogía Segura. Their children were Manuel Arias Segura, Angélica Arias Segura, Diógenes Arias Segura, Nicolasa Arias Segura, Zunilda Arias Segura, Fabiana Arias Segura and Edelmira Arias Segura.

Manuel Arias Segura got married to Enriqueta de los Santos and their children were Lesbia Arias de los Santos, Félix Arias, Rafael Arias de los Santos and Gladys Arias de los Santos. Manuel Arias also had children with Teresa Segura Nin, and they were Valerio, Nena de la Cruz, Eulogía, Lourdes and Urania. He also had children with other two woman but there are not records of their names, the children were América, Viterbo, Vidal Segura and Elósido.

Lesbia Arias de los Santos got married to Carlos Marranzini and their child was Carlos Marranzini Arias. Rafael Arias de los Santos had a daughter named Antonia Arias, Cesar Arias de los Santos had three children, Narciso, Luis Emilio, and Mirna. Gladys Arias de los Santos got married to Ramón Batista and their child was Camilo.

Early American and New World Settlers
The first bearers of Arias in coming to America were Rodrigo Arias who arrived in America in 1513, Pedro Arias who landed on the new continent in 1516, Alonso Arias who landed in Cuba in 1533, Bernardino Arias who arrived in Puerto Rico in 1813, Fernand Arias who landed in America in 1817 and Hernand Arias who also arrived in America that same year.

Mottoes
We were unable to locate any documented mottoes for the Arias family.

Grantees
We were unable to locate any documented grantees for the Arias family.

Notables
Some of the most remarkable bearers of Arias in history have been Alberto Arias (b. 1983) a Dominican professional baseball player, Arnulfo Arias (1901-1988) a doctor and writer who was President of Panama, Maximiliano Arias (b. 1988) a football player from Uruguay, Óscar Arias (b. 1940) former President of Costa Rica, José Arias (1922-2015) an alpine skier from Spain, Julien Arias (b. 1983) a rugby player from France, the Argentine writer María Velasco y Arias, Luis González Arias a diplomat from Paraguay and Benito Arias (1527-1598) a theologian from Spain.

Blazons & Genealogy Notes

1) Royaume de Léon – De gueules à la tour sommée d’une tourelle d’argent le champ chapé du même ch à dextre d’une croisette de gueules et à senestre d’une aigle de sable. English: Gules a tower surmounted by a turret argent the field with a chape of the same charged with to the dexter a crescent gules and to the sinister an eagle sable.
2) Royaume de Léon – D’azur au lion d’or. English: Azure a lion or.
3) Avila, Zamora – Parti au 1 de gueules à la tour sommée d’une tourelle d’argent le champ chapé du même ch à dextre d’une aigle de sable et à senestre d’une croisette de gueules au 2 de gueules à la bande d’or l’écu entouré d’une bordure de gueules ch de huit tours d’or. English: Per pale 1st gules a tower surmounted by a turret argent the field with a chape of the same charged with to the dexter an eagle sable and to the sinister a crosslet gules 2nd gules a bend or over the whole shield a bordure gules charged with eight towers or.