Where the Herrera name comes from

Herrera is a Spanish surname built on the Latin word ferrāria, which named an iron mine or a place where iron was worked. The name can also be read as the feminine form of herrero, the Spanish word for an ironsmith, a trade word that survives separately as the surname Herrero. Within Spanish the form grew out of herrería, which itself came from the earlier ferrería and ferrero.

The same name crossed into neighbouring tongues, and its Portuguese and Galician equivalent is Ferreira. Errera, Ferrera and the less common Bherrera appear as variant spellings. The 2010 United States census counted 192,711 people named Herrera, making it the 129th most common surname in the country.