ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1632 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1632 ************************************ 21 May 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for our opinion of as a man's name in Spain. You also asked about sources for period Spanish arms. is a superb choice for a given name. During the sixteenth century, it was the most common given name; in one study, one in five men was named .[1] here could be either a second given name or a patronymic surname (a name saying that you're descended from a man named ). Either one is possible. However, double given names were exceedingly rare in period Spain, while two-element surnames were not unusual.[2] We recommend that you consider a surname. Examples in which was used as a surname include: [3] Juan Mateo Granada, 1555 Juan Mateo Rosa (son of Gaspar Mateo and Isabel Rosa), 1555 Go/mez Mateo, 1535 Herna/n Mateo, 1535 We found the surname in various forms. is the most common spelling, but we found others [4]: Catalina de la Vega, 1538 Alonso Herna/ndez de la Vega, 1538 Juan de Vega, 1538 Juan Go/mez de Bega (son of Francisca de Vega), 1538 Antonio de la Bega (son of Gutierra de la Bega), 1538 Either or would be a typical name for your period. is less typical, but would not have been out of the ordinary. We know of no good sources written in English that describe period Spanish arms. However, there are a few books in Spanish that have pictures of arms; you could look at those for some ideas about what Spanish arms looked like. Two books you could get through Interlibrary Loan are: Riquier, Marti/n de, _Heráldica castellana en tiempos de los reyes cato/licos_, Ediciones dels Quederns Crema, Barcelona, 1986. (Spanish Heraldry in the time of the Catholic Kings, i.e. the last quarter of the 15th century) Riquier, Marti/n de, _Heraldica Catalana des de l'any 1150 al 1550_, Ediciones dels Quederns Crema, Barcelona, 1983. (Catalan Heraldry from the year 1150 to 1550 - Catalonia is northeastern Spain, centered around Barcelona). There are several sites on the World Wide Web that depict Spanish heraldry; however, we cannot recommend them because they mix period and later heraldry with no indication of the date of individual examples. One site that shows various period royal Spanish arms is: http://members.xoom.com/chema/index.html We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. We were assisted in researching and writing this letter by Elsbeth Anne Roth, Pedro de Alcazar, and Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja. For the Academy, Juliana de Luna & Arval Benicoeur 21 May 1999 ------------------------------------------------------ References [1] Elsbeth Anne Roth, _16th-century Spanish Men's Names_ (WWW: Self-published, 1998). http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~kvs/mnames.html [2] In one study of the titled nobility in the 16th century, less than 3% of the people had double given names. In most lists of names, less than 1% of people have double given names. Juliana de Luna, publication pending In the study of titled nobility mentioned above, there were more two element surnames than one element surnames. In a more typical sample, you might expect 5-8% of surnames to have two elements. [3] Romera Iruela, Luis, and Ma. del Carmen Galbis Di/ez, _Catalogo de Pasajeros a Indias, Siglos XVI, XVII, y XVIII_ (Sevilla: Archivo General de Insias, 1980). The first two are from Volume III, the second two from Volume II. [4] Romera Iruela, Luis, and Ma. del Carmen Galbis Di/ez, _Catalogo de Pasajeros a Indias, Siglos XVI, XVII, y XVIII_ (Sevilla: Archivo General de Indias, 1980), all from Volume II.