Last name origins & meanings:
- Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: nickname for a belligerent
person or for a soldier, from guerra ‘war’. In some cases the
Italian name may represent a short form of various compound personal
names containing this element, for example Vinciguèrra. The
Iberian name may in some cases reflect a misinterpretation of the
Basque base ezquerra, esquerra, from esker
‘left-handed’.
- Basque: Castilianized form of Basque Gerra,
a topographic name for someone who lived in a break or depression in a
range of hills, from Basque gerri ‘waist’.
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