Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 426

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 426

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/426

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

Here is the information we have about the Spanish names Catalina Diamante Montoya and Catalina Inez Montoya.

First, a few words on how Spanish names were constructed. The most common pattern is <given> <surname>. The pattern <given> <patronymic><locative> was used from the 13th C on by the land owning class. In the 15th century, there was a widespread tendency on the part of the upper classes to drop the patronymic altogether, leaving <given> <locative>. An example of the formation <given> <patronymic> <locative> is Francisco Mart{i'}nez de Palategui, meaning Francisco, son of Mart{i'}n, from Palategui. In the 16th century, you would not expect Francisco's father to be named Mart{i'}n, but rather that his surname was Mart{i'}nez de Palategui. A wider variety of surname combinations are found later in period. Names using the pattern <given> <given> <surname> were extemely rare in Spain; we have found no unambiguous examples of this pattern.

"Catalina" was a very popular Spanish woman's name in the 16th C. In a catalogue of passengers from Spain to the New World, it is the third most common woman's name [1].

We found two forms of the name "Inez": one a given name, "In{e'}s" or "In{e'}z", and the other a surname, "I{n~}ez." "In{e'}s" was the sixth most comman woman's name in the catalogue mentioned previously. In addition, In{e'}s or In{e'}z de Castro, the Spanish mistress to the heir to the throne of Portugal, was murdered in 1355. "I{n~}ez" is a completely separate name from In{e'}s and In{e'}z; it is a patronymic for the male name Enneco, which is a medieval spelling of the modern name I{n~}igo.

We found an example of "Diamante" as a Spanish surname: Juan Bautista Diamante, a 17th C playwright. We believe that it was an occupational surname originally denoting a diamond merchant. A French source [2], gives that description for "Diamant" and "Diamand." "Diamante" is found in 17th C Italy as a given name, and in the form Diamanda, in England in the 13th and 14th C. Diamanda may have been used as given name in medieval Spain, but we not found no examples of it.

We are not sure when "Montoya" first began to be used as a byname; the earliest examples we were able to find were from the mid to late 16th century. The form "de Montoya" appears to be correct for this period. Examples of the name include Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, a Jesuit author who lived from 1585-1682, and wrote about the conversion of certain South American tribes; and Juan Martinez de Montoya who published an account of the discovery New Mexico in 1602.

We recommend the names "Catalina Diamante," "Catalina I{n~}ez," or "Catalina de Montoya" as good 16th C Spanish women's names. "Catalina I{n~}ez de Montoya" is also a reasonable name for a 16th C Spanish woman; the form is <given> <surname> <surname>.

You also asked for assistance in designing simple arms. We suggest that you first look at some examples of medieval heraldry so that you can get more of a feel for the way heraldic designs generally looked. While there is not a good, easily accessible reference for medieval Spanish Heraldry, there is one for English heraldry--"A Dictionary of Heraldry" by Joseph Foster, which has thousands of real coats of arms in it.

There are also a few works on Spanish heraldry that you may be able to find in your local library or obtain through interlibrary loan. The first is Menedez Pidal de Navascues, "F. Caballeria Medieval Burgalesa. El Libro de la Confradia de Santiago", Madrid 1996, which contains a number of pictures of equestrians bearing arms. The second is Menendez Pidal de Navascues, Faustino, "Libro de Armeria del Reino de Navarra", which I recommend highly, is De Riquer, Marti. "Heraldica Catalana", describes characteristics of Catalan armory from 1150-1500, and the second volume contains illustrations, including two Catalan rolls of arms in color.

If you are unable to find any of these works, here are a few suggestion to consider when designing Spanish arms. You had asked about "counter-ermine", "a dagger", and "a rose". I would recommend against using either counter-ermine as a tincture, or a dagger as a charge; looking through the "Heraldica Catalana", mentioned above, I found only one example of a fur, and that was regular ermine. I found no examples of swords or daggers. Roses and cinquefoils, however, appeared fairly often, so these would be good choices as charges. Common patterns for arms involve a single object arranged in the following ways: three X, two and one; five X, two, one, and two; six X, two, two, and two; and eight X, two, two, two, and two.

Pedro de Alcazar, Arval d'Espas Nord, Elsbeth Anne Roth, Jaelle of Armida, and Talan Gwynek contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

Yours in service,
Margaret Makafee
Academy of Saint Gabriel


References

(1) Luis Romera Iruela and Ma. del Carmen Galbis D{i'}ez. Catalogo de Pasajeros a Indias, Siglos XVI, XVII, y XVIII. Sevilla: Archivo General de Insias, 1980

(2) Dauzat, Albert. Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de famille et prénoms de
France. (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1989)