Sierra surname meaning

Sierra is a Spanish habitational surname from any of numerous places called Sierra or La Sierra. The word sierra means “ridge” or “chain of hills,” from Latin serra, “saw,” a metaphor for a saw-toothed mountain line. Catalan Serra is a closely related form sometimes Castilianized as Sierra. DAFN also notes Sephardic families who adopted the Spanish surname at conversion and later retained it. Place is high confidence for the ridge-and-locality explanation that dictionary sources put first; the landscape word, not a personal name, supplies the surname’s core sense.