Is merino a Jewish family name?

Answer 1

Yes, it is Ladino for "of higher rank, position, or degree" and came from the Latin word "maiorinus" (from which we get the words "mayor" and "major" and "major domo" (household administrator in Roman times).

In Spain, it was somewhat common as a family name (eventually) among Jewish upper middle class, the name being transferred from the head of a hacienda or nobility financial advisor (as a title) to his family.

Just prior to the Great Expulsion from Spain in 1492, some Sephardic Jewish families with the Merino last name were apparently accused of being false Conversos to Catholicism, for social advantage, and a University of Minnesota Jewish history scholar gave the educated opinion at a lecture in about 2000 that a mocking of the name "Merino" was the origin of the derogatory "marrano" (Ladino for "pig").

Today "Merino" is most commonly associated with sheep and high-quality wool from the "merino" breed, mostly raised in Australia now, but originally raised in Spain and brought over to England as a source for the woolen wigs once worn by English magistrates and statesmen.

There were some Merino families in Aleppo, Syria in the late 1800's and early to late 1900's, but they are no longer localized to any one part of the world, and, through intermarriage, are no longer exclusively "Jewish" (though many still are)