Villarreal surname meaning

Villarreal is a Spanish habitational surname meaning “royal village” or “royal town.” It combines villa, a village or settlement, with real, “royal,” and refers to places whose names marked a connection with the Crown. More than one locality can produce the surname, including places whose modern forms use Vila-real or Villareal. The well-known town in Castellón is one historical example, not the automatic origin of every family. Place is the high-confidence catalog type because the compound place name is transparent, even when genealogy must identify the relevant locality.