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Basque surnames are those found in the Basque Country, a region of Northwestern Spain and Southwestern France known as Euskadi, as well as in the Basque Diaspora (known as "Zortzigarren Probintzia" in North and South America.[1]
Some Basque surnames were rendered using Spanish orthography in the Middle Ages and spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula, to the point that many common Iberian surnames are of Basque origin, even though they might not appear to be Basque. Basque surnames can usually be differentiated from Spanish or French surnames due to the Euskera orthography, based in a language not related to any other on the planet. Being an agglutinative language, it can have very long surnames created by the addition of prefixes and suffixes, like Olarticoechea, Iturriagaetxebarria, Gatzagaetxebarena, Barinagarementeria and Burionagonatotorecagageazcoechea, the longest Basque surname.[2] There are over 25,0000 Basque surnames, some just being carried by a few people and thus at a very high risk of extinction.
History of Basque surnames
The earliest documented Basque surnames occur on inscriptions from the time of the Roman conquest of Hispania and Gallia Aquitania. In most cases, these can be easily equated with modern or medieval Basque surnames, for example, Enneconis (the personal Basque name Eneko plus the Latin genitive ending '-is', stem augmented by '-n') became the surname Enekoitz. The current form of Basque surnames has changed slightly since it started to be introduced as far back as the 12th century for noble families[3].
Starting in the 16th century, it is usual for Spanish Basque people to be identified in most documents (including church records) with two surnames: first the paternal surname and secondly the maternal surname. Also, when this complete naming is used, up until the 20th century the normal structure would be First Name de Paternal Surname y Maternal Surname. Only in the 20th century this would be simplified to First Name Paternal Surname Maternal Surname.
Basque naming conventions
Following the legal conventions in Spain, Basques in Spain have double legal surnames, the first being the paternal surname and the second the maternal one. In France, Basques legally have only one surname, according to the conventions there. However, most Basques may know by heart the surnames of their ancestors by at least a few generations. There are no such things as maiden and married names in the Spanish Basque Country. People preserved their surnames throughout their lives independently of them being men or women, and their marriage status. Sometimes in the 16th and 17th centuries we see men who change their surname to the one of their wife; this is when the newlywed couple went to live at the wife’s family house (Spanish: casa solar) and this house had some form of vínculo or mayorazgo: two forms of legal arrangements -similar to the majorat in other parts of Europe- which preserved the rights of succession to a specific asset, usually the casa solar.
An example summing up the two features above would be the actual baptismal record of Juana Francisca de Zumelaga y Landaburu, who was baptized at the San Miguel parish of Arrazola (Biscay) on June 23rd, 1886. Her father was Tomás de Zumelaga y Barrutia and her mother was Maria de Landaburu y Castañares. Her paternal grandparents were Eusebio de Zumelaga y Dolara and Francisca de Barrutia y Barrutia, while her maternal grandparents were Jose de Landaburu y Dolara and Florentina de Castañares y Ugaldea. Note that in a single church record we have eight surnames of the person being baptized. This is not common, though: most baptismal records would register 4 surnames at most.
Basque surnames in French and Spanish orthography
Since the Middle Ages, Basques were repressed in the use of their language and had to resort to either French or Spanish orthographies to write their names. After Euskara batua (standard Basque) was developed as a common written standard in 1960, the number of foreign spelling variants has begun to decrease. This is important to take into account when researching Basque surnames.
| Basque spelling | Spanish spelling | French spelling |
|---|---|---|
| Aroztegi | Arostegui | Rosteguy |
| Bolibar | Bolívar | Bolivare |
| Elizalde | Elizalde | Elissalde/Delissalde/Delissalt |
| Etxeberria | Echeverría | Etcheverry/Detcheverry/Echeverri |
| Etxepare | Echepare | Etchepare/Detchepare |
| Ezkibel | Esquivel | Esquibel |
| Intxausti | Inchausti | Ynchausty |
| Zubiri | Zubiri | Çubiry |
| Mindiburu | Mendiburu | Mendiboure |
| Zubieta | Cubieta | Soubiet/Suhebiette |
| Azenari | Aznar | Asnard |
| Lekubarri | Lecubarri | Lecoubarry |
| Getaria | Guetaria | Guéthary |
Basque patronymic surnames
The vast majority of Basque surnames are of patronymic origin. The particle '-iz', meaning "son of" is of Basque origin.[4] Its use spread to Spanish as "-ez" and eventually, to Portuguese after the Reconquista, when the Douro river basin was repopulated with people from the Basque Country,[5] which makes surnames like González, Fernández, Pérez, López, and Sánchez not just some of the most common surnames in Spain but also in the Basque Country. In the Basque language, '-z' is added to the end of the word if it ends in vowel or '-ez' if the word ends in a consonant; however, the grammar of the patronymic endings '-ez', '-iz' or '-oz' is sometimes used to denote origin or content as well. The Basque surnames can also indicate family links with the genitive suffix '-(r)ena' (Mitxelena, Arruabarrena) which means 'belonging to'.
Patronyms are also a common trait of Basque names since the Middle Ages. Originally they would follow the traditional Spanish -ez suffix and indicate the name of one person’s father (i.e. Lopez would indicate a person whose father was Lope, Sanchez would come from Sancho, Tellez from Tello and so on), but by the 16th century they were just a common way of further identifying a certain family when the surname was common, or even one person within the family, additionally to the first name and surname. Most common patronyms in the Spanish Basque Country were Garcia, Ochoa, Pérez, Lopez, Saéz/Saénz/Sainz, Ruiz, Martínez etc. Although patronyms nowadays have become full-fledged surnames, before the 1800’s there were more properly an extension of the first name. For example, Pedro de Berecibar y Garitano was baptized at the San Pedro Apóstol parish of Bergara (Gipuzkoa) on February 21st, 1624, the son of Pedro Perez de Berecibar y Jaúregui and Maria Garcia de Garitano y Churruca. Though in his baptismal record his first name is just Pedro, he would adopt the patronym Perez during his adult life (same as his father), so that in the baptismal records of his daughter Manuela (August 6th, 1654), son Francisco (April 2nd, 1656) and daughter Mariana (June 12th, 1658) he is listed as Pedro Perez de Berecibar y Garitano. Again, her daughter Manuela would adopt the patronym Perez, but it’s clear the family surname was just Berecibar. With time, this traditional use of the patronym would disappear and end up evolving in one of three ways:
- With the patronym just disappearing, so that the family surname would survive as Berecíbar.
- Overtaking the use of the surname itself, so that the family name would end up being solely Pérez, with Berecíbar disappearing.
- Becoming a new composite surname Pérez de Berecíbar, which would survive to our days. This happens more commonly in Álava, where these kinds of surnames can still be found by the dozens: Martínez de Eulate, Ruiz de Gopegui, Ortiz de Zárate, Ruiz de Azúa, Fernández de Arroyabe, Díaz de Durana, González de Audicana.
Basque toponymic surnames
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The Basque location-based surnames can be formed using nouns, adjectives, suffixes and endings like the absolutive ending '-a', the adjectival suffix '-ko', and the genitive ending '-ren', like Ibarra ("the valley"), Zubiondo (near the bridge), Mendieta ("hilly place"), Goikoetxea ("the high lying house"), which make Basque toponymic surnames relatively easy to identify by the presence of these elements. The names of some places, like Bilbao or iruña, can be found as surnames without the Spanish composite.
The overwhelming majority of Basque surnames are a sub-type of toponymic surnames known as oyconyms (from the Greek oikos “household” and suffix -onym “name”). This means that the name of the casa solar is the one that represents the family that originally lived there. Since there were no street names in the Middle Ages, every house had a single-word name that identified it in Basque language. For example, the house below is named Iribe which means “below or under the village”. A high number of these types of houses (called baserris in Basque) still exist to this day and bear the same historical name, which represents a Basque surname. Ultimately this means that we can associate Basque ancestors not only with a surname but also with the exact location in which their family originated.
Basque composite surnames
In some parts of the Spanish Basque Country like Navarra and especially Álava, surnames often take a first part of Castilian origin, usually a patronymic ending in -ez, then the Spanish particle 'de' (of) and finally the name of a place in the Basque language, often a village, for example, Fernández de Larrea, García de Vicuña, Díez de Ulzurrun, Martínez de Zuazo or González de Urreta.[6]
Basque occupational surnames
There are some, less common, Basque surnames associated with occupation but adding the genitive suffix '-(r)ena, like Mariñelarena ("of the sailor") and Zapatariena ("the shoemaker's"). Others, may indicate indirectly the occupation of the original bearer of the surname, such as Etxeberria, which means "new house" and may indicate the person was part of a family that built a new house in town.[7]
Basque descriptive surnames
The Basque descriptive surnames can trace their origins to the Middle Ages, and can originate from an animal or a place, like Otxoa ("wolf") or its derivative Otxotorena ("little wolf's house"), Belea ("raven") and its derivative Belasko ("little raven") which is common in Spanish as Velasco and which evolved into the patronymic Velázquez. After the conquest of the Iberian part of Navarre in the 16th century, the usage of Basque names was banned in Spain with the support of the Catholic Church.[8] Basque people started to use Spanish first names, while adopting surnames in Basque that described a place, like Madariaga (pear grove) or Luzuriaga ("place of white earth") or less commonly, personal traits, like Gorrotxategi ("place of the redheads").[9]
Popular Basque surnames
Ironically, and as a result of the restrictions on the use of the Basque language, the most common Basque surnames are common Castillian-sounding surnames as they have been registered using Spanish orthographic rules.[9] In the Spanish Basque Country, only Aguirre (often spelled Agirre) appears as a common 'pure' Basque surname:
Celebrities with Basque surnames
- Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mexican filmmaker
- Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, born Máxima Zorreguieta
- Paco Rabanne, Spanish/French fashion designer (born Francisco Rabaneda Cuervo)
- Sofía Vergara Vergara, Colombian actress
- Sebastián Piñera Echenique, twice President of Chile
- Goizeder Azúa, Venezuelan/Spanish TV hostess and Miss International 2003
- Jean-Baptiste Élissalde, French former rugby union player and coach
See also
Explore more about Basque surnames
- Search Your Last Name on MyHeritage
- Historical records from Spain on MyHeritage
- Historical records from France on MyHeritage
References
- ↑ Euskal diaspora, zortzigarren probintzia. Euskal Kultur Erakudea
- ↑ Albaigès, Josep M. Enciclopedia de los nombres propios. Editorial Planeta, 1995. ISBN 84-08-01286-X
- ↑ Luis de Salazar. Origen de 300 Apellidos castellanos y vascongados. Bilbao, 1917.
- ↑ Salaberri, Zaratiegi, Patxi. Topónimos alaveses de base antroponímica terminados en –iz, -ez y –ona / -oa. Universidad de Navarra
- ↑ De Miguel, Amando. Huellas de Vasconia en la vieja Castilla. Libertad Digital. August 04, 2022
- ↑ Carracedo, Sergio. Siete curiosidades de los apellidos de los alaveses. El Correo. May 03, 2014
- ↑ Guide to Basque Surnames: Origins and Meanings. The best of Basque
- ↑ Vigor, Iñaki. Cuando los nombres vascos eran contrarios «a la unidad de la Patria». Naiz. May 02, 2018
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 ¿Es tu apellido de origen vasco?. Partekatu.com