ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1743
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1743
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30 Jun 1999
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked our opinion of <Isabel Margarita de Sotomayor y Perez de Gerena>
as a name for a Spanish woman, born in Madrid in 1560.  In particular, you
asked whether we could find evidence of the surname <de Sotomayor>.  Here
is what we have found.

Your name is appropriate for your period, though it is an unusually complex
name.  The general practice of using multiple given names and multiple
surnames in Spanish did not arise until after our period.  Some examples
with constructions similar to your name do exist in lists of 16th century
Spanish nobility, but they are unusual.  For example, we found the names
<Pedro Luis Galcero/n de Borja y Castro-Pino/s> and <Alvar Pe/rez de
Guzma/n y Sua/rez de Mendoza> [1].  (The slash represents an accent on the
preceding letter.)  You are re-creating a very unusual pattern of
name-formation for your period, and it is unlikely that you'd have used the
full name except in the most formal circumstances.  If you dropped one
given name and simplified your surname to <de Sotomayor y Gerena>, <Pe/rez
de Sotomayor>, or <Pe/rez de Gerena>, you'd have a much more typical name
for your period.

All the elements of your name are fine choices.  <Isabel> was the 3rd most
popular woman's name in 16th century Spain.  <Margarita> was also
reasonably common [2].

We found a man <Gutierre de Sotomayor>, Master of the Knight of Alcantara
during the reign of Juan II, who ruled 1406-1454 [3], and several
references to <Sotomayor> in 16th century records, including a woman named
<Isabel de Sotomayor> 1559 and a man <Diego Lo/pez de Haro y Sotomayor>
1559.  The name ultimately derives from the Valle de Soto in Galicia, which
eventually came to be known as <Sotomayor>, but one branch of the family
lived in Andalucia by your period [1, 6].  The word <soto> means "copse,
thicket" and <mayor> used in this context probably means "larger" or
"greater" [4].

<Perez> is a common surname, originally patronymic (i.e. identifying
someone as the son of <Pero>), but used as an inherited family name by your
period.  We gave one contemporary example above; the use of the accent was
optional in period Castilian.

We found several references to <Gerena> in 16th century records: <Diego
Gerena> 1555, <Bartolome/ de Jerena> 1539, and a <Luis Rodriguez> 1555 who
came from <Gerena> [6].  <Gerena> is a small town near Sevilla [5].


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.  I was assisted in
researching and writing this letter by Pedro de Alcazar, Antonio Miguel
Santos de Borja, Elsbeth Anne Roth, and Juliana de Luna.

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  30 Jun 1999


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References

[1] De Atienza, Julio, _Nobilario Espan~ol_ (Madrid: Aguilar SA de
Ediciones, 1954).

[2] Elsbeth Anne Roth, _16th-century Spanish Women's Names_ (WWW:
Self-published, 1998). 
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~kvs/fnames.html

[3] Netanyahu, Benzion, _The Origins of the Inquisition_ (New York: Random
House, 1995). 

[4] Dutton, Brian, et al., _Cassell's Spanish and English Dictionary_,
(New York: Collier Books, Macmilan Publishing Company, 1986).

[5] Informacio/n de Gerena (accessed 23 June 1999)
http://www.dipusevilla.es/ayun/gerena/general.htm

[6] 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), volume III.