Medrano surname meaning

Medrano is a Spanish habitational surname from the municipality of Medrano in La Rioja (dictionary entries often cite the Soria region for the same name-cluster). Bearers originally came from that locality or held land there; de Medrano appears in older records. The place-name’s deeper etymology is obscure—possibly pre-Roman—but the surname type is clearly geographic rather than occupational or patronymic. As with many Iberian habitational names, multiple families could take Medrano independently from the same town. Place is the catalog type, and the habitational identification is high confidence even though the root of the toponym remains uncertain.