The Evolution of Spanish Surnames in Colonial Mexico

Have you ever wondered how you ended up with your surname? When did it start? Who was the first person to assume that name and begin passing it down? How did it come to them? Well, for many of us with Mexican ancestry, the exact origins and timing will never be known. We can only trace our lineage as far back as possible and hope to gain some insight into some of the answers, and for many of us, it probably started somewhere in Europe.

Let me start by saying that I struggled with the content for this post because I was torn between presenting factual information versus something that I have merely observed. Having reviewed thousands of records, I have seen numerous last names and wondered about the origins just as I'm sure many of you have. Most every surname probably has some sort of interesting story behind it. I've also observed that many surnames are quite similar to others with slight spelling variations as well as others that appear to have significantly changed but possibly stemming from the same "root" name. How did this happen? You also might be wondering right about now, "Why does it matter?". Well, the short answer is that many of the surnames that arrived from Europe changed or morphed over time and it could be the one of the very reasons that you have not been able to advance some of the branches in your family tree.

Today, I have a much better understanding of the evolution of Spanish surnames, especially during the era of colonial Mexico. I may not be able to tell you where your surname originated but I can share some insight into some of the things I have seen and let you decide if it is something worth exploring. What follows is more of a test of the "scientific method" that you probably learned about in your science class at school. Rather than a solid set of facts, you hypothesize about something based on what you have observed and then try and prove your thesis. Well, I've done that and want to share what I have seen. The idea here is that you should consider the possibility that surnames in your family tree may have changed slightly, or in some cases, significantly as you go back in time. As I have discovered in my own personal lineage, the record-keeping process of both church and civil authorities, while unbelievably good and consistent in a broad sense, did at times leave a lot to be desired at the detail level.

WHY DID THEY CHANGE?

There are any number of reasons that surnames have changed over time but I point to one main reason in my work below:  Illiteracy. The earliest arriving Europeans to the New World were members of the clergy who were some of the most educated people at the time. There were also wealthy Spanish citizens and other Europeans, who had been equipped with some level of education, and who came here to expand their influence. Nevertheless, these groups eventually became the minority of immigrants. The majority of the people that came to New Spain were illiterate. Being unable to read or write, this left the majority of people at the mercy of what was written about them and how it was written. Imagine being illiterate and unable to recognize whether your name is being spelled as you know it, or having to rely on your memory of characters or simply just remembering how it was sounded out. All they could muster was their best effort at pronunciation and to depend on the scribe to determine the spelling, which by the way was very inconsistent, and this probably led to many of the variations that I have noted in the tables below.

Before we get into some of the examples, let's take a step back and consider Spanish surnames in general. Where did they originate? Why were they needed? Well, the answers can only be speculative for most of us, considering we weren't there to witness any of the origins. Surnames were probably "given" rather than "self-created", in my opinion, meaning that instead of someone coming up with their own it was probably more often the case that it was just "assigned" by someone else. Prior to the 16th century, as populations in southern Europe continued to grow, it became more important to differentiate individuals from one another, especially as commerce and interaction between people continued to increase. Furthermore, you had cultures that valued passing down given names or family names to their children resulting in many people sharing the same given names in a relatively small geographic area. How do you identify which "Juan" is being referred to? Ethnohistorians would tell you that there were any number of ways to distinguish between individuals, however one of the best ways would have been through topographic naming, that is, linking a person to a certain geography or location in some way. As I wonder about the origins of my own last name, Moralez (which was originally Morales), I find that the word means mulberry bushes in Spanish. I can only imagine that perhaps there was an individual somewhere on the Iberian Peninsula or further east along the Mediterranean toward Italy, that lived in an area identified by some growth of mulberry bushes. Perhaps there were also several "Pedros" in this area, so now one of them could be associated with a location near some grove of mulberry bushes, Pedro de Morales, thus providing a way to distinguish him from the others. Another surname in my family tree is that of "Griego", which means "Greek" or of Greek origin. Is that another hint about where this person may have once lived or where their family originated? Other possible methods for surnames might include naming based on the type of work they performed, some unique physical trait or even just a slang name. Regardless of the method, the goal was to differentiate individuals.

Now, let's get back to the question of why this could be important in your search. Most of us use different search engines to find results that match surnames. A good search engine with fuzzy search can provide good results even if there are small discrepancies. This works well if records are indexed correctly and it matches the surname you are searching. However, if records are poorly-indexed or not indexed at all, as is more often the case, then you are at the mercy of sifting through documents yourself, which can take a considerable amount of time.

The table below shows some of the surnames that I have identified, through my reviews, as being prone to small changes in spelling across records spanning hundreds of years:

Anaia, Anaya, Amaya	Burciaga, Brusiaga, Bursiaga	Saenz, Saes, Sais, Saens
Cano, Caro	Pando, Pardo	Vega, Bega, Begay
de la Torre, Torres, Torre	Paredes, Paderes	de la Riva, Rivas, Rivera
Morga, Monga	Talabera, Tabalera, Talavera	Yrigoyen, Yrigollen
Colomo, Colombo	Melendes, Melendres	Rubialcava, Rubalcava, Ruvialcaba
Ximenes, Gimenez, Jimenez	Arras, Arias	Bribiescas, Villescas, Viescas
Carbajal, Carbaxal, Carabajal	Sisneros, Ceniseros	Goncalves, Gonsales, Gonzalez
Carrera, Cannena	Armendaris, Almendaris	Montoya, Montolla, Montoia
Urtiaga, Artiaga, Arteaga	Hidalgo, Ydalgo,	Redondo, Arredondo

Here are some examples:

Marriage Record: Jose Domingues and Josefa Burciaga--note the letter "B" resembles "G" and see the way the record was indexed below as "Gurciaga".

Interchangeable Letters within a name: Paderes should be written as Paredes. I see the same type of issue with Talabera and Tabalera in several records.

Another example of the "B" looking more like a "G" in and this time being spelled Brusiaga as opposed to Burciaga two records above.

Below is another common thing that I have seen with regard to spelling. Was there a divergence with some last names based solely on how they appeared in a record or document? Imagine someone providing their last name to the scribe and saying "Blanco" or "Polanco" somewhat quickly. They almost sound the same and could easily be confused.

Is the last name here Blanco or Polanco and did this last name diverge for some family tree branches at some point?

This surname looks like "Azeby" however my records indicate it is actually a version of Acebes, Aceves or Asebes. Do you know anyone with the last name, Azeby?

Other last names that, in my opinion, are candidates for divergence in a family tree just like the example above. I know for a fact, based on records, that one of my primary maternal surnames, Quintana, derived from Quintanilla. I would loved to have known this early on!!

Yanes, Nanes, Nunes	Viscaino, Visciano, Visuano	Yduarte, Yriarte, Yndarte
Quintana, Quintanilla	de la Gandara, Gandara, Gandarilla	del Campo, Campos, Campa, Campolla

The key to keeping an accurate family tree is to record names based on what you consider factual information. I have seen countless mistakes in record-keeping that I have to believe throw many people off course. I have seen numerous variations of the same names, but I try and keep an open mind and consider the fact that sometimes you will just have to cross-check individual information with the records of their siblings and other relatives just to confirm things like surnames. If you have any thoughts or questions you would like to discuss around this, or any other topic, please feel free to contact me at contact@texmexgenealogy.com. Good luck!