Vara Family History

Galician, Asturian-Leonese and Spanish: habitational name from Vara (Galicia), Vara del Rey (Cuenca), or La Vara (Asturies). Portuguese and Spanish: from vara ‘rod’, ‘stick’, ‘yardstick’ (Late Latin vara ‘forked stick’), applied as a nickname or metonymic occupational name in any of various possible senses; it may have been given to a keeper of animals, who used a stick to urge his charges on, or to an official who was responsible for checking weights and measures or who carried a rod as a symbol of his office.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press