- Thread starter ClippedWing
- Start date
Odd Spanish Surnames
Clipped.
Not all Dominicans have Spanish surnames, but most do. My own are French and Dutch, yet very much Dominican. If you wanna have fun looking at Dominican "apellidos" you may want to visit this page on Dominican genealogy.
They have quite a few but they may or may not be Spanish. As others have pointed out names from Germany, Corsica, Italy, Holland, France, Portugal, England, Poland, as well as Arabic or Chinese are possible. I'm sure that you will find one you like for your story.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~domwgw/MHHB/sc.htm
good luck,
- Tordok
Not all Dominicans have Spanish surnames, but most do. My own are French and Dutch, yet very much Dominican. If you wanna have fun looking at Dominican "apellidos" you may want to visit this page on Dominican genealogy.
They have quite a few but they may or may not be Spanish. As others have pointed out names from Germany, Corsica, Italy, Holland, France, Portugal, England, Poland, as well as Arabic or Chinese are possible. I'm sure that you will find one you like for your story.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~domwgw/MHHB/sc.htm
good luck,
- Tordok
ClippedWing said:
Unusual last name, you mean funny? hard to pronounce/find?
Funny last names Esposito, Calvo, Concha, Baca, Del Toro, De la Calle, Veloz come to my mind, these are kind of common but sounds funny to me... Hard to pronounce/find, Azpilcueta, Iparraguirre, Berastain... can't think in others, maybe more tomorrow...
Jess :bunny:
that link the other dude gave kinda sucked , its very non informative , does any body know a good , free , site where you can find the origins of last names
what's in a name?
Fuego,
am I "the other dude"? They guy asked for Dominican surnames and that is precisely what that link offers. No one said anything about name origins or meanings. That, dude, is an entirely different matter...and indeed there are hundreds of those elsewhere on the web.
Chiri,
Vargas Llosa's character had the given name Pantale?n with Pantoja as his surname, which is pretty odd sounding in its own right. In the DR is usually a last name, the great majority originally from the Salcedo and San Francisco de Macor?s area.
Mirador,
I agree with Juancarlos in that Velter is most likely Germanic. If indeed it is French, then it is much more likely to be Swiss or Alsatian rather than Corsican. The majority of Corsican names are Italian in origin.
Principe,
Re. Amable Amado Bueno Gal?n,(LOL) when I was a schoolboy one of my classmates was named Inocencia Casta y Pura. (No bull). Another one in high school, (a Mexican) had the name Javier Becerra Gallo. And of course there is a Dominican lady named Dulce Pi?a de Cocco.
I always found names that due to their local prevalence and idiosyncracies, like Primitivo N??ez Ure?a or Elpidio Longo Genao, to be practically 100% Dominican (as opposed to simply of Spanish origin). More poetic names are the likes of Agapito Garabito. I used to keep a list with me from my time as an intern in the Grull?n pediatric hospital in Santiago where kids had first names never heard before or with spellings that belonged to no known ethnicity. I distinctly remember a girl baptized as Dancing Days Rodr?guez, presumably after the name of a Brazilian TV soap opera of disco-crazed teens from Rio ("Dancing Days") popular in the DR during the early 1980's. Since most novelas were named after the main character (e.g. Mar?a Alejandra, Lupe, Ver?nica or whatever), the parents figured that Dancing Days was a perfectly cool Brazilian name for girls.
- Tordok
FuegoAzul21 said:
Fuego,
am I "the other dude"? They guy asked for Dominican surnames and that is precisely what that link offers. No one said anything about name origins or meanings. That, dude, is an entirely different matter...and indeed there are hundreds of those elsewhere on the web.
Chiri,
Vargas Llosa's character had the given name Pantale?n with Pantoja as his surname, which is pretty odd sounding in its own right. In the DR is usually a last name, the great majority originally from the Salcedo and San Francisco de Macor?s area.
Mirador,
I agree with Juancarlos in that Velter is most likely Germanic. If indeed it is French, then it is much more likely to be Swiss or Alsatian rather than Corsican. The majority of Corsican names are Italian in origin.
Principe,
Re. Amable Amado Bueno Gal?n,(LOL) when I was a schoolboy one of my classmates was named Inocencia Casta y Pura. (No bull). Another one in high school, (a Mexican) had the name Javier Becerra Gallo. And of course there is a Dominican lady named Dulce Pi?a de Cocco.
I always found names that due to their local prevalence and idiosyncracies, like Primitivo N??ez Ure?a or Elpidio Longo Genao, to be practically 100% Dominican (as opposed to simply of Spanish origin). More poetic names are the likes of Agapito Garabito. I used to keep a list with me from my time as an intern in the Grull?n pediatric hospital in Santiago where kids had first names never heard before or with spellings that belonged to no known ethnicity. I distinctly remember a girl baptized as Dancing Days Rodr?guez, presumably after the name of a Brazilian TV soap opera of disco-crazed teens from Rio ("Dancing Days") popular in the DR during the early 1980's. Since most novelas were named after the main character (e.g. Mar?a Alejandra, Lupe, Ver?nica or whatever), the parents figured that Dancing Days was a perfectly cool Brazilian name for girls.
- Tordok
there're alot of geneology websites online but most of them are scams they never exactly tell you until u give ur credit card #
Basque Surname
Hello, I was wondering if anyone had ever heard of the surname UNZUETA. My grandparents are of Spanish descent and I was told that at least one or two of my great granparents are Basque, but I can't seem to find any information on the surname UNZUETA. My other Spanish surnames are also Ballesteros, Ortiz de la Pena, and Adame and from my fathers side Barrera, Cuadros, and Fuentes. I would really appreciate any information on any of these but especially UNZUETA since that's the main one that I can't find anything on. Thank You!
Hello, I was wondering if anyone had ever heard of the surname UNZUETA. My grandparents are of Spanish descent and I was told that at least one or two of my great granparents are Basque, but I can't seem to find any information on the surname UNZUETA. My other Spanish surnames are also Ballesteros, Ortiz de la Pena, and Adame and from my fathers side Barrera, Cuadros, and Fuentes. I would really appreciate any information on any of these but especially UNZUETA since that's the main one that I can't find anything on. Thank You!
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Some last names that I have heard (which are many) are:
Roque (probably basque in origin)
Polonia
Lantigua (not sure of origin, Spanish or French?)
Olivares (certainly Spanish, not sure from what part)
Garcia (does this one needs an explanation?
)
Sanchez
Encarnacion
Jimenes
Delgado
Bueno
Cardona
Grullon (possibly Basque, but not sure)
Martinez
Peña
Rocha
Rosario
Salcedo
Sena
Valdez (ahem, remember the times of Trujillo? :nervous: , but the people I know are nice, though their history is.... well.... :bandit: )
Zorilla
Mejia (no, not Mr. Baldy)
Hazoury (Probably middle eastern, not sure if Syrian or Lebanese, since those are the two places where most Dominican middle easterners decend from)
Wessin y Wessin
Ramos
Hache
Brugal (need explanation? he he he)
Bermudez
Sosa
Vicini (Italian, hands down)
Trujillo (not sure of origin... though we all know this one very well... they seem like nice people, but what a difference 40 odd years does!)
Bencosme (not sure of spelling or origin either, but in the times of Trujillo this family practically ruled over Moca in the Cibao, this family even supplied a mayor to that town, completely feared by the everyday person.)
The list goes on and on and on, but this gives a good representations of the different types of last names that can be found in this "tiny" but diverse nation.
BTW, if anyone have concrete answers to the more serious questions I posted here, feel free to answer them. Thank you in advance!
Roque (probably basque in origin)
Polonia
Lantigua (not sure of origin, Spanish or French?)
Olivares (certainly Spanish, not sure from what part)
Garcia (does this one needs an explanation?
)Sanchez
Encarnacion
Jimenes
Delgado
Bueno
Cardona
Grullon (possibly Basque, but not sure)
Martinez
Peña
Rocha
Rosario
Salcedo
Sena
Valdez (ahem, remember the times of Trujillo? :nervous: , but the people I know are nice, though their history is.... well.... :bandit: )
Zorilla
Mejia (no, not Mr. Baldy)
Hazoury (Probably middle eastern, not sure if Syrian or Lebanese, since those are the two places where most Dominican middle easterners decend from)
Wessin y Wessin
Ramos
Hache
Brugal (need explanation?
he he he)Bermudez
Sosa
Vicini (Italian, hands down)
Trujillo (not sure of origin... though we all know this one very well... they seem like nice people, but what a difference 40 odd years does!)
Bencosme (not sure of spelling or origin either, but in the times of Trujillo this family practically ruled over Moca in the Cibao, this family even supplied a mayor to that town, completely feared by the everyday person.)
The list goes on and on and on, but this gives a good representations of the different types of last names that can be found in this "tiny" but diverse nation.
BTW, if anyone have concrete answers to the more serious questions I posted here, feel free to answer them. Thank you in advance!
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Baez is a derivitive of "Paez", a standard Castillan name.
Why are there so many Portuguese names in the DR? One explanation is that many 19th and 20th century immigrants to the DR came from the Spanish province of Galicia, which traditionally was a Spanish-Portuguese border area with a language closer to Portuguese than Spanish. The other explanation would be less popular, em, not kosher.
Interesting that nobody mentioned the surname "Balaguer". I always assumed it was French until I identified the Catalonian town of the same name.
"Veler" being from Corsica? It means "veil" in antiquated French. Some of Corsica has been French speaking for a long time (Napoleon was born there), so it is possible.
"Andujar" is most certainly of Arab origin, but is an Andalusian name now. Hazouri is of more immediate Arab (Levant) origin.
"Genao", an extremely well known name in Jarabacoa and La Vega, seems to be Dominican-only. Some believe it is derived from the Italian city of "Genoa".
My family has "Almonte" (Andalusian, probably convertido), "Luna" (from "De La Luna", standard Castillan), "Adames" (highly, but not exclusively, Dominican. Sound-alikes occur in other LA countries) and Cortina (unknown in the DR, and little known in Spain).
As for odd names, how about "Ogando", "Rubirosa", "Puello", "Moronta". "Wessin & Wessin" HAS to be of German origin, for more reasons than one. Outfielder Jose Offerman must be of Dutch origin, though he doesn't look it.
And, speaking of outfielders, what the heck kind of name is "George Bell"? Why it's Cocolo.
Why are there so many Portuguese names in the DR? One explanation is that many 19th and 20th century immigrants to the DR came from the Spanish province of Galicia, which traditionally was a Spanish-Portuguese border area with a language closer to Portuguese than Spanish. The other explanation would be less popular, em, not kosher.
Interesting that nobody mentioned the surname "Balaguer". I always assumed it was French until I identified the Catalonian town of the same name.
"Veler" being from Corsica? It means "veil" in antiquated French. Some of Corsica has been French speaking for a long time (Napoleon was born there), so it is possible.
"Andujar" is most certainly of Arab origin, but is an Andalusian name now. Hazouri is of more immediate Arab (Levant) origin.
"Genao", an extremely well known name in Jarabacoa and La Vega, seems to be Dominican-only. Some believe it is derived from the Italian city of "Genoa".
My family has "Almonte" (Andalusian, probably convertido), "Luna" (from "De La Luna", standard Castillan), "Adames" (highly, but not exclusively, Dominican. Sound-alikes occur in other LA countries) and Cortina (unknown in the DR, and little known in Spain).
As for odd names, how about "Ogando", "Rubirosa", "Puello", "Moronta". "Wessin & Wessin" HAS to be of German origin, for more reasons than one. Outfielder Jose Offerman must be of Dutch origin, though he doesn't look it.
And, speaking of outfielders, what the heck kind of name is "George Bell"? Why it's Cocolo.
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I used to believe that my first surname, Romero, from my father's side, was derived from 'romo' (rum), notwithstanding that my father is a teetotaller. Later I learned that 'romero' in English stood for 'rosemary'... However, in true Spanish, a 'romero' is a pilgrim, and 'romer?a' is a pilgramage', like 'un romero de San Santiago'. My second surname, Santana, from my mother's side, is a contraction of 'Santa Ana', which is the mother of Mary, Mother of Jesus. My various children's second surnames, on their mother's side, are Nunn, Foucault, Trifilio, and Amador...
To rubirosa
Thanks for the info. Rubirosa. but I think you might be a little mistaken about the origin of "Baez" . I told my friend and he emailed me this ....
Origin Displayed: German
Origin Displayed: German
Origins Available: German, Spanish
During that dark period of history known as the Middle Ages, the name of
Baez was first used in Austria. While the patronymic and metronymic
surnames, which are derived from the name of the father and mother
respectively, are the most common form of a hereditary surname in Germany,
occupational surnames also emerged during the late Middle Ages. Many
people, such as the Baez family, adopted the name of their occupation as
their surname. However, an occupational name did not become a hereditary
surname until the office or type of employment became hereditary. The
surname Baez was an occupational name for a fine collector. Tracing the
origin of the name further, we found the name Baez was derived from the
German word buoze, which means fine.
Porfio_Rubirosa said:
Thanks for the info. Rubirosa. but I think you might be a little mistaken about the origin of "Baez" . I told my friend and he emailed me this ....
Origin Displayed: German
Origin Displayed: German
Origins Available: German, Spanish
During that dark period of history known as the Middle Ages, the name of
Baez was first used in Austria. While the patronymic and metronymic
surnames, which are derived from the name of the father and mother
respectively, are the most common form of a hereditary surname in Germany,
occupational surnames also emerged during the late Middle Ages. Many
people, such as the Baez family, adopted the name of their occupation as
their surname. However, an occupational name did not become a hereditary
surname until the office or type of employment became hereditary. The
surname Baez was an occupational name for a fine collector. Tracing the
origin of the name further, we found the name Baez was derived from the
German word buoze, which means fine.
Name origins are not an exact science. Far from it, it is actually a very arbitrary custom of relatively recent vintage that depends on the mix of your cultures of origin and the past migrations of your ancestors. Keep in mind also that in the Americas, some people were indentured or enslaved and inherited names that had nothing to do with their own ancestries. Many "Dominican" names seem unique or autochtonous, yet when properly researched they turn out to be mispelled variations of better established names from the different regions of Iberia or from other ethnicities.
An Huguenot (Protestant) fled France in the 17th century with his surname from the Loire Valley and moved to the Netherlands where his name was changed. From there, his son moved to Suriname and married into a Dutch Jewish family. One bastard child moved to Curacao on businness and married into a merchant family of Portuguese Sephardim conversos. His grandson then moved to Santo Domingo in the 19th century to set up an import businness but converted to Catholicism and his name was slighlty changed again to be less foreign sounding and more Castillian. In the Caribbean, such journeys are not as rare as some may assume. Thus a name with that kind of history could have morphed from Daurierr to Doojreir to Daurios to Dario. This has happened with other names through other routes.
Keep in mind that oral tradition was often the only way by which some names got transmitted in a land that was until very recently largely illiterate and official records very poorly kept. Even literate notaries would transcribe a name based on the Castillian phonetics of the time at which they came to the island and not necessarily in keeping with whatever their original spelling may have been. For example the Dominican "Ogando" is quite probably a campesino's way to say or write Ovando (as in the colonial era's Governor).
- Tordok
:bandit:
Porfi, I actually know George, and he and other Dominicans descended from immigrants from the British West Indies clearly prefer to use "Ingl?s/Ingleses" or "the English" in self reference, and not "Cocolo/Cocolos" which many of them -including George- do find offensive.
I agree that most of us colloquially do use that term with no ill intent for that ethnic group. Thus, other "English" Dominican ballplayers: Alfredo Griffin, Rico Carty, Nelson Norman. In San Pedro and La Romana there are many people with Anglo surnames like W?lliams, Johnson, Morrison, Wells, etc.
- Tordok
:classic:
An Huguenot (Protestant) fled France in the 17th century with his surname from the Loire Valley and moved to the Netherlands where his name was changed. From there, his son moved to Suriname and married into a Dutch Jewish family. One bastard child moved to Curacao on businness and married into a merchant family of Portuguese Sephardim conversos. His grandson then moved to Santo Domingo in the 19th century to set up an import businness but converted to Catholicism and his name was slighlty changed again to be less foreign sounding and more Castillian. In the Caribbean, such journeys are not as rare as some may assume. Thus a name with that kind of history could have morphed from Daurierr to Doojreir to Daurios to Dario. This has happened with other names through other routes.
Keep in mind that oral tradition was often the only way by which some names got transmitted in a land that was until very recently largely illiterate and official records very poorly kept. Even literate notaries would transcribe a name based on the Castillian phonetics of the time at which they came to the island and not necessarily in keeping with whatever their original spelling may have been. For example the Dominican "Ogando" is quite probably a campesino's way to say or write Ovando (as in the colonial era's Governor).
- Tordok
:bandit:
Porfio_Rubirosa said:
Porfi, I actually know George, and he and other Dominicans descended from immigrants from the British West Indies clearly prefer to use "Ingl?s/Ingleses" or "the English" in self reference, and not "Cocolo/Cocolos" which many of them -including George- do find offensive.
I agree that most of us colloquially do use that term with no ill intent for that ethnic group. Thus, other "English" Dominican ballplayers: Alfredo Griffin, Rico Carty, Nelson Norman. In San Pedro and La Romana there are many people with Anglo surnames like W?lliams, Johnson, Morrison, Wells, etc.
- Tordok
:classic: