qutroga: a MEXICAN MtnsnciPio — brand 



85 



NAMES AND ETHNIC ORIGINS 



The names of persons, both baptismal and 

 surnames, are interesting in themselves and also 

 often oflFer clues as to origins and other historical 

 elements. By the time of the sixteenth century 

 Spanish conquest and colonization of Mexico, 

 family names or surnames {nombres de /amilia, 

 apellidos, sobrenombres) were well established in the 

 Iberian Peninsula, and essential stability had been 

 attained in passing the patronymic from father to 

 son and on to successive descendants. These 

 trends were strengthened by the confirmation at 

 the Council of Trent (1545-63) of the requirement 

 that parish registers be kept in all churches. 



From various lists of conquerors, encomenderos, 

 citizens of Spanish settlements (vecinos de villas y 

 ciudades), emigrants from Spain (pasajeros a 

 Indias), corregidores, missionary and regular 

 clergy, etc., we can obtain a fairly good idea of the 

 family names involved and of the parts of the 

 peninsula whence they came. Unfortunately, so 

 far no one has made an intensive study of European 

 surnames in Mexico, such as Thayer Ojeda (1917, 

 1919) has done for Chile. In the absence of such 

 a study, we can only report our findings for 

 Quiroga, and must leave comparisons with Mexico 

 as a whole and with other parts of Me.xico to 

 another time. 



QUIROGA SURNAMES 



Our main source was the March 6, 1940, Federal 

 census. We copied all 3,899 names of the in- 

 habitants of our area (the Villa of Quiroga and its 

 six dependent ranchos) from the original census 

 forms, filed in Mexico City. The first step was to 

 determine the number of people possessing each 

 sm-name. All males and all unmarried females 

 were entered under the father's family name. 

 Wives, widows, and divorced women were entered 

 under their maiden names. Since marital status 

 was shown for all, and because of the consistent 

 method of formation of the Spanish compound 

 surname, little difficulty was encountered. All 

 names, excepting those of illegitimate children, 

 are composed of the baptismal name followed by 

 the father's surname and the mother's surname. 

 The two surnames may be joined by "y" (and), 

 but this custom does not obtain in Quiroga and 

 is not so common in Spanish America as it is in 

 Spain. Occasionally a compound name will be 



inherited as a whole, in which case it is also fol- 

 lowed by the mother's maiden name, and thus 

 gives rise to a tripart compound surname. In 

 the Quiroga area this was true only for the Diaz 

 Barriga family. Wives add the particle "de" (of) 

 and their husband's patronymic to complete their 

 names. Widows may insert "viuda" (widow) 

 in front of the "de," in which case they usually 

 drop the matronymic, but more commonly they 

 revert to their maiden names. Examples illustrat- 

 ing the statements given above are shown in 

 table 21. 



Table 21. — Formation of names in Quiroga 



At the time of the 1940 census there were 252 

 different family names represented in Quiroga. 

 This number does not consider the variations in 

 some names introduced by ignorance on the part 

 of the informant or of the census taker, or by the 

 common interchange of "b" and "v," of "s" and 

 "z," of "1" and "r," of "c" and "s," of "p" and 

 "b,"of "c"and"z," of "e" and "i," of "o" and "u," 

 of "a" and "e," of "i" and "y," of "y" and "11," of 

 "li" and "11," andof "r"and"rr,"theuse and omis- 

 sion of "h" before "o" and "u," and changes in gen- 

 der and number. Illustrations of variations include: 

 Abrego and Abrigo, Alva and Alba, Bernal and 

 Vernal, Campo and Campos, Campuzano and 

 Camposano, Ceja and Seja, Cendejas and Zende- 

 jas, Cortez and Cortes, Chavez and Chaves, 

 Diaz and Diez, Espinoza and Espinosa, Gaitan 

 and Gaytan, G6mez and Gomes, Ledezma and 

 Ledesma, L6pez and Lopes, Meza and Mesa, 



