Place
Morales surname meaning
Spanish topographic/habitational from moral, “mulberry tree” (often “place of the mulberries”).
The short story
Morales is Spanish for a landscape label tied to moral, the mulberry tree—someone who lived by mulberries, or who came from one of the places simply called Morales. That puts the surname in the place bucket, not the craft bucket.
It is plural in form ("the mulberry trees" / "mulberry place"), which is common in Iberian topographic names. Related Moral without the -es appears too. US Census Morales is frequent in Hispanic communities; the short gloss remains mulberry-place. The short family gloss is what matters for this catalog.
Also seen as: Moral, Moralez, De Morales
Sources used
- Ancestry surname meaning for Morales citing topographic plural of moral ‘mulberry tree’
- Spanish surname synthesis (mora/moral mulberry; places named Morales)
- Names2020_LastNames_RaceHispanic_Top1000.xlsx (2020 Census)