Jimenez surname meaning

Jimenez is the unaccented US spelling of Jiménez, a Spanish patronymic built from the medieval personal name Jimeno. The ending -ez marks descent, so the surname’s central sense is “son of Jimeno,” not a literal occupation or place. Jimeno itself has a complicated older history, with Basque and Iberian explanations in the background; that deeper layer is less secure than the patronymic structure. Jimenes, Ximénez, and Giménez show how regional spelling and later orthographic changes shaped the family name. Census records often omit the accent, making Jimenez the practical American form.