The Aquino LedgerA surname across four worlds
ENES
Illustration of cacao trees and the Nigua river valley near Castillo, Duarte
A genealogical journal · October 2026

Aquino: one name, many roots

From a Roman town in Lazio to the cacao valleys of Castillo, Duarte, and the sugar country of Tarlac. This is the story of the surname, told chapter by chapter, with every claim footnoted.

Read the Serie 59 feature Explore the timeline

Illustration · AI-generated

The surname Aquino is toponymic. It names a place, the town of Aquino in the province of Frosinone in southern Lazio, which the Romans called Aquinum.1 A Lombard noble house took its name from that town and became one of the Seven Great Houses of the Kingdom of Naples.2 Naples was ruled from Spain for two centuries, and the name moved through the Spanish world from there.3 It also spread a second way. Catholics took or were given the name in honor of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Tomás de Aquino, so many Aquino families have no blood tie to the Italian nobility.45

That double origin explains a lot about the Dominican Republic. The country has close to 32,000 Aquinos, and they belong to several unrelated branches.6 This journal pays most attention to one of them: the Aquino families of Castillo, Duarte, known locally by the municipality's cédula series, Serie 059.7 An Aquino appears on the official list of Castillo's founding families, and a man named Juanico Aquino is remembered as one of the people who brought cacao and coffee to the area.8

~647,000bearers of the name worldwide (est.)9
#63rank in the Dominican Republic, about 1 in 328 people6
059cédula series of Castillo, Duarte7
#19rank in the Philippines, about 183,000 bearers10
The chapters

Read in order, or jump to a branch

Each chapter stands on its own. Footnote markers open a short source preview, and every page lists its sources at the bottom.

Illustration of cacao pods and coffee cherries
Feature

Serie 59: the Aquinos of Castillo

What "Serie 59" means, how Castillo was founded, Juanico Aquino and the cacao and coffee story, the records that survive, and a step-by-step plan for proving which Dominican Aquino branch a family belongs to.

Open the feature →
 I

Italian origins

Aquinum, the Lombard counts of Aquino, Saint Thomas Aquinas, and how a place name became a devotional name.

Read → II

Spain & Naples

Spanish Naples, the d'Ávalos-Aquino alliance, princely titles from Philip II and Philip IV, and the name in Spain today.

Read → III

Dominican Republic

Colonial Santo Domingo, the 1812 Macorís census, and a guide to the unrelated Aquino branches across the country.

Read → V

The Philippine branch

Clavería's 1849 surname decree, the Kapampangan roots of the Tarlac Aquinos, and an interactive family tree.

Read → VI

Aquino today

An interactive world distribution chart and the latest Aquino news from 2025 and 2026.

Read → VII

Around the world

Every country where the name is ranked, with stories of notable Aquinos from Paraguay to Guam. Additional context for Serie 59.

Read → VIII

Sources & method

A searchable bibliography of every source used, and notes on how the evidence was weighed.

Browse →
Interactive timeline

Twelve centuries of the name

Filter by branch to follow one thread at a time.

9th c.Italy

Rodoaldo, lord of Aquino

He is remembered as the founder of the Lombard house that took the town's name.2

c. 1225Italy

Thomas Aquinas born at Roccasecca

He was canonized in 1323, and his name became a common devotional name across the Catholic world.11

1452Naples

Antonella d'Aquino marries Innico d'Ávalos

The marriage founded the d'Ávalos d'Aquino line, which tied the name to Castilian nobility.2

1504Naples

Naples becomes a Spanish viceroyalty

Spain ruled Naples until 1714.3

1602 · 1637Spain

Spanish princely titles

Philip II named Carlos de Aquino Prince of Castellón, and Philip IV named Francisco de Aquino Prince of Feroleto.9

1718–1730Castillo

First settlers reach the Nigua valley

Settlers, contraband traders among them, began to populate the area that became Castillo.812

1807Santo Domingo

Aquino Amador born

He was the son of Bruno Aquino Montes de Oca, from a well-documented family of the capital.13

1812San Francisco de Macorís

Pedro and Francisca Aquino counted

They appear in the Partido de las Guásumas in the 1812 census of the Macorís jurisdiction, the territory Castillo was later carved from.14

1849Philippines

Clavería's surname decree

The decree distributed Spanish and other surnames from a catalog of about 61,000 names.15

1854Pampanga

Hilario Aquino, gobernadorcillo of Magalang

He is the earliest documented officeholder of the Tarlac Aquino line.16

1884 / 1897Castillo

Juanico Aquino and the cacao and coffee story

The municipal history says he helped introduce cacao and coffee around 1884. A local outlet dates his coffee planting to 1897.812

1896Philippines

Servillano Aquino joins the Katipunan

He became a general of the Revolution.17

1907Castillo

Castillo becomes a municipality

Municipal status came on 9 September 1907, with Aquino among its founding surnames.8

1932Dominican Republic

The cédula and its "series"

Law 247 created the personal cédula, numbered within a series for each place, so Castillo became "Serie 59".187

1983 · 1986Philippines

Ninoy's assassination and Cory's presidency

Ninoy Aquino was killed on 21 August 1983, and his widow Corazon later became president.19

2019Diaspora

Aristides Aquino's record rookie month

The Santo Domingo native set rookie home-run records with Cincinnati.20

2025Philippines

Bam Aquino returns to the Senate

He finished second in the national race.21

2022–2026Castillo

Aquinos still in Castillo

The surname still appears in recent municipal records of Castillo.22

Sources cited on this page

  1. Heráldica Familiar — Apellido Aquino. Toponymic origin in Aquino (Frosinone); arms: banded of twelve pieces, gold and red. https://www.heraldicafamiliar.com/aquino/
  2. Wikipédia (fr) — Famille d'Aquino. History of the Lombard House of Aquino: Rodoaldo, counts of Aquino, Seven Great Houses of Naples, Grandee of Spain, d'Ávalos marriage. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famille_d'Aquino
  3. Wikipedia — Kingdom of Naples. Aragonese rule from 1442; Spanish viceroyalty 1504–1714. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Naples
  4. FamilySearch — Aquino surname in the Philippines. Devotional origin honoring St Thomas Aquinas; in the Catálogo de Apellidos; top provinces. https://www.familysearch.org/en/philippines/surname/Aquino
  5. Genera — Sobrenome Aquino. Notes the name spread through devotion to St Thomas Aquinas. https://sobrenomes.genera.com.br/sobrenomes/aquino/
  6. Forebears — Most common surnames in the Dominican Republic. Aquino ranks 63rd in the DR with 31,853 bearers (1 in 328). https://forebears.io/dominican-republic/surnames
  7. Mapa de municipios de la República Dominicana (nombre del municipio y serie). Municipal map listing each municipality with its cédula series number (Castillo = 059). https://www.nalsite.com/imagenes/mapas/pdf/repdominicana/municipios.pdf
  8. Ayuntamiento Municipal de Castillo — Historia. Official municipal history of Castillo, Duarte (founding families, Juanico Aquino, 1907 municipality). https://ayuntamientocastillo.gob.do/historia/
  9. WikiApellidos — Aquino. Spanish titles held by the Aquino (Prince of Castellón, Prince of Feroleto, Grandee), INE counts in Spain. https://wikiapellidos.com/aquino
  10. Forebears — Aquino surname. Worldwide incidence and frequency by country. https://forebears.io/surnames/aquino
  11. Wikipedia — Thomas Aquinas. Born c. 1225 at Roccasecca, died 1274 at Fossanova, canonized 1323; feast 28 January. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Aquinas
  12. Serie59.com — Historia de Castillo. Local news outlet's history page: settlers 1718–1730, coffee introduced by Juanico Aquino and Gregorio Riva. https://www.serie59.com/p/historia.html
  13. Geneanet — Hernández Brea family tree (Santo Domingo). Aquino Amador, b. 1807, son of Bruno Aquino Montes de Oca and Vicenta Amador Hevia. https://gw.geneanet.org/mhhernandezbrea?lang=en&m=P&v=rafael
  14. Instituto Dominicano de Genealogía — Padrón de San Francisco de Macorís, 1812. 1812 census capsule: Pedro and Francisca Aquino in the Partido de las Guásumas; a child named Tomás de Aquino. https://www.idg.org.do/capsulas/agosto2008/agosto200816.htm
  15. Wikipedia — Catálogo alfabético de apellidos. Governor Narciso Clavería's 21 November 1849 surname decree for the Philippines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%C3%A1logo_alfab%C3%A9tico_de_apellidos
  16. Amlat Magaleño — Magalang and the Aquinos (2018). Hilario Aquino, gobernadorcillo of Magalang 1854; Braulio, gobernadorcillo of Concepción 1885–1887. https://amlatmagaleno.blogspot.com/2018/08/magalang-and-aquinos.html
  17. Wikipedia — Servillano Aquino. General of the Revolution (1874–1959), his wives and children. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servillano_Aquino
  18. Diario Libre — Cómo ha evolucionado la cédula dominicana (2024). History of the Dominican cédula: 1932 Law 247 librito with number and series, 1940 women, 1992 Law 8-92, 2014 format, 2024 renewal. https://www.diariolibre.com/actualidad/politica/2024/01/04/como-ha-evolucionado-la-cedula-de-identidad-y-electoral-dominicana/2568028
  19. Wikipedia — Aquino family. Political family of Tarlac: Servillano, Benigno Sr., Ninoy, Cory, Noynoy, Kris, Bam and others. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquino_family
  20. Wikipedia — Aristides Aquino. Dominican MLB outfielder born 1994 in Santo Domingo; 2019 rookie home-run records. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristides_Aquino
  21. Wikipedia — Bam Aquino. Senator since 30 June 2025; 2nd place in the 2025 Senate election. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bam_Aquino
  22. SISMAP Municipal — Evaluación del desempeño, Castillo 2022. 2022 performance evaluation of 207 municipal staff in Castillo. https://sismap.gob.do/Municipal/uploads/evidencias/638167215265502060-(207)Evaluacin-del-Desempeo-CASTILLO-2022.pdf