Family name origins & meanings
- Spanish : from the medieval personal name Pelayo, from Greek Pelagios (a derivative of pelagos ‘sea’). In the Middle Ages this was one of the most popular personal names in the northwestern Iberian peninsula, having been borne by the first king of the Reconquest, and by various martyrs, including a young boy in the 10th century who was, according to legend, tortured and killed by the Moors of Cordoba for refusing to renounce his faith.