Mena (surname)

Mena (also: de Mena, Menaca) is a Spanish surname that originates as both a Basque   and Spanish Sephardic  surname.

It is also a given name, Mena. The Meena tribe of India is also spelled as Mena.

Basque meaning
Found in the valley of Mena (Alava, which today is Burgos), with branches in Bilbao and in Dima (Biscay) and it appears to have also moved from there into Navarre; regions now part of Spain. It appears to mean mineral or a vein of mineral deposits, however at least one author, Lopez Mendizabal, holds that its meaning is pastoral. A variant of the surname is Menaca, with the '-ka' suffix representing "place of", as in "place of Mena", equivalent to the Spanish "de Mena".

Notable people with the name

 * Carlos Mena, Spanish countertenor
 * Cristian Mena, Dominican baseball player
 * Eugenio Mena, Chilean footballer
 * Gabriel Mena, Spanish poet, composer, musician and singer
 * Gilberto García Mena, Mexican drug lord
 * Javiera Mena, Chilean pop singer
 * Juan de Mena, Spanish Renaissance poet
 * Juanjo Mena, Spanish conductor
 * Luis Mena (disambiguation), multiple people
 * Luis Mena, former President of Nicaragua
 * Luis Mena Irarrázabal, Chilean footballer
 * Maria Mena, Norwegian pop singer
 * Odlanier Mena, Chilean general
 * Omar Mena, Cuban sprinter
 * Pedro de Mena, Spanish sculptor in the 17th century
 * Sharlett Mena, American politician; member of the Washington House of Representatives since 2023