Hispanic surname 'Morales' and any others?
Hi there, two things I feel like to learn about:

1) Is Morales a common Hispanic surname in Spain and/or Latin America?

/*
The thing is, I was asked by a colleague of mine if I knew this
English word "morale" last week.
So anyway it was sort of a piece of new vocabulary for me--brilliant, love its meaning! :-)

The day before yesterday I coincidentally met a guy from Colombia, whose surname
happens to be Morales, and we had a good time talking.

Today I find time with access to the internet and try to put my finger on it so as to
see if a connection is there between them. Turns out, voila! Mulberry?--oh well,
something that had better stay unknown as well as exotic ;-)
*/

2) Are there any Hispanic surnames relevant to food or whatever you find interesting?

Thanks in advance.

Question

Hispanic surname 'Morales' and any others?
Hi there, two things I feel like to learn about:

1) Is Morales a common Hispanic surname in Spain and/or Latin America?

/*
The thing is, I was asked by a colleague of mine if I knew this 
English word "morale" last week. 
So anyway it was sort of a piece of new vocabulary for me--brilliant, love its meaning! :-)

The day before yesterday I coincidentally met a guy from Colombia, whose surname 
happens to be Morales, and we had a good time talking.

Today I find time with access to the internet and try to put my finger on it so as to 
see if a connection is there between them. Turns out, voila! Mulberry?--oh well, 
something that had better stay unknown as well as exotic ;-)
*/

2) Are there any Hispanic surnames relevant to food or whatever you find interesting?

Thanks in advance.

Answer

1) Well, Morales is a common surname in Latin America, but also a very common surname in Spain. One only must look in a phone book, there are thousands of them. Yes, it's not as common as "García" or "Sánchez" but very common after all.

2) Hispanic surnames relevant to food:

Limón, Melón, Castaño, Paniagua, Cerezo, Comino, Angulo, Centeno, Cordero, Lucio, Oliva, Piña, Quesada, Salinas, Mora, Morcillo, Cazón, Chicharro, Ciruelo, Costilla, Oreja, Higuero, Nuez, Frutos, Lombardo, Manzana, Navajas, Naranjo, Peral, Pulpillo, Rábano, Sales, Torta, Trigo.

I hope this helps!

Answer

As Antón said, Morales is more common in Latin America. We also have Manzano, Cerezo, Naranjo, Perales, Romero and so forth. You can check it out on the internet by googling "common spanish surnames" or "apellidos comunes en España".

Answer

I think that it is more common in Latin America.