Medieval Naming Guides: Spanish, Portuguese, and Basque
Spanish, Portuguese, and Basque Names
This index contains articles on names in the western Iberian
languages, the ancestors of modern Spanish and Portuguese, plus Basque
and Islamic names in Spain. Articles on Catalan names are available
elsewhere.
General Information
- Romance
Languages of the Mediaeval Iberian Peninsula, by Pedro de Alcazar
- Iberia today is divided into two countries, Spain and Portugal, each with
an official language. Within Spain are several minority populations with
their own languages: Catalan in the east and northeast, Basque in the
north, and Galician (very similar to Portuguese) in the northwest. In our
period, the situation was much more complex.
Maps of the linguistic
regions are available for
c.900,
c.1150, and
c.1300.
Castilian-Leonese Names
-
Nombres y Patronymicos Leoneses, s. X, by Marianne Perdomo (Leonor Martín)
- Lists of masculine and feminine given names and patronymics from 10th
century Leon. In Spanish, with modernized spellings of names.
-
Medieval Spanish Names from the Monastery of Sahagun,
by Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja
- Lists of given names and an analysis of naming patterns from 10th-13th
century documents.
-
Leonese and Castilian Given Names 1050-1200,
by Diego Mundoz
- Academy of Saint Gabriel
report 2408
- Lists of masculine names and a discussion of naming practices in 12th
century Leon.
-
Leonese Names from the First Half of the 14th Century, by
Aryanhwy merch Catmael
- A small collection of men's and women's names.
-
Members of the Order of the Band in the 14th Century, by
Marianne Perdomo (Leonor Martín)
- Names of noblemen who were companions of this chivalric order.
- Leonese Men's Names from 1313, by Aryanhwy merch Catmael
- Full names, including bynames.
- Late-Period Spanish Men's Names from Seville, by Aryanhwy merch Catmael
- Men's given names and surnames from 1376, 1540, and 1567.
-
Names in the Memorias de Leonor López de Córdoba, ca.1412, by Marianne Perdomo (Leonor
Martín)
- A small collection from a modern Spanish edition of a 15th century
memoir. The names are given in modern spellings.
-
Cordobese names of the 15th century, by Marianne Perdomo (Leonor
Martín)
- Lists of masculine and feminine given names from 15th
century Cordoba with an analysis of name construction. The spellings
of names are modernized.
-
Foreign fighters in the war against Granada, 15th c., by Marianne
Perdomo (Leonor Martín)
- This is a work in progress, but a fascinating one. The author has
identified the nationality of some of the men. This is a valuable
example of how the names of travellers were adapted to the local
language.
- Spanish Names from the Late 15th
Century, by Juliana de Luna
- An analysis of 1957 masculine and 456 feminine names from the
household accounts of Isabella of Castile, including lists of given
names and surnames.
- Spanish Names from the Inquisition Trials of Ciudad Real, 1483-1513, by Aryanhwy merch Catmael
- Analysis of names from trial records, including masculine and feminine given names and an analysis of bynames.
- Spanish Names from Jaén, 1495, by Aryanhwy merch Catmael
- Masculine and feminine given names and surnames.
- Spanish Names from Blesa, 1495, by Constanza of Thamesreach
- Names taken from a
census of the Aragonese village of Blesa in 1495. This list is
extracted from an excellent source, Antonio Serrano Montalvo,
La población de Aragón según el Fogaje de
1495 (Zaragosa: Institución Fernando el
Católico, Gobierno de Aragón e Instituto Aragos de
Estadística, 1995),
and mentions two women by name: Anthona Romeu and
Pascuala Sesmera.
- Passenger
Lists, 1400-1500, at The Olive Tree Genealogy
- List of the crew on Columbus' 1492 voyage, and lists of survivors of
Magellan's voyage. The spellings are probably modernized and
standardized, but these pages do offer a few dozen names from late 15th
century Spain.
- 16th
Century Spanish Names, by Elsbeth Anne Roth.
- An extensive study of names and naming customs.
- Spanish Names from the 1591 Tlaxcala Census, by Kallinikos Gavras
- Spanish names from a census of Tlaxcala residents, many of whom were indigenous Nahuatl speakers.
Portuguese and Galician Names
- Early Portuguese Names, by
Juliana de Luna
- A small collection of names c.1200.
- Portuguese Names 1350-1450,
by Juliana de Luna
- An analysis of about 220 names from chronicles of this period.
- Portuguese Names from the 16th Century:
Letters from the Court of King John III, by Juliana de Luna
- An analysis of men's and women's names, with examples of given names
and surnames and discussion of patterns of name construction.
-
Portuguese Names from Lisbon, 1565, by Aryanhwy merch Catmael
- Masculine names, feminine names, and surnames from a tax roll.
Catalan Names
See the Occitan and Catalan names index.
Basque Names
There's a nice
discussion of the history of the Basque language, by Larry Trask,
and some more information at his
Basque
Page.
- Basque
Feminine Names, by Aryanhwy merch Catmael
- A short list of names from the 10th through 14th centuries.
- Basque Onomastics of the Eighth to Sixteenth Centuries, by Karen Larsdatter
- An extensive list of given names and bynames, organized by modern Basque spelling. The article includes a mixture of Basque names, names of people living in Basque regions, and names which have roots in the Basque language but were used by people living in other parts of Spain.
Jewish Names in Spain
See the Jewish names index.
Islamic Names in Spain
These articles discuss Islamic names specifically from Iberia. We
have articles on Islamic names in other parts
of the medieval world.
- Andalusian Names: Arabs in Spain, by Juliana de Luna
- Lists of masculine and feminine given names and bynames from 8th to
12th century Andalusia records. This article includes an explanation
of the general structure of medieval Arabic names.
- Spanish Names from the Late 15th
Century, by Juliana de Luna
- This article contains some examples of Islamic names.
- Moorish
Place-names in Portugal, by Dom Pedro de Alcazar
- Arabic names of administrative districts in Portugal
Names from the New World
See the index of names from the New World.
The Medieval Names Archive is published by
Ursula Georges. It was historically published by the Academy of Saint Gabriel.
Copyright on individual articles belongs to their authors.
http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/iberian.shtml