 AFTER EIGHT hundred years of Arab-Christian-Jewish civilization in Spain, during which time the Christians increasingly asserted control, the "saving" of Spain was completed when the fifteenth-century Catholic monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand united their kingdoms of Castile and Aragon and set about destroying the Moors and expelling all Jews who refused to convert to Catholicism. What followed was the Spanish Inquisition: the government search for those who falsely claimed to have converted to Catholicism. This brought about extreme measures of "proving" one's Catholicism to his community. The remarkable contributions the Jews and Muslims had made to Spanish society were lost or abandoned through the inquisition process, which made it heresy to have anything to do with those peoples and their religions. This had a marked impact on the bestowal of names. No longer were Jewish, Muslim, or Arabic names used. Instead, at baptism, the infant was welcomed into the church community and was given a name chosen from the Catholic Calendar of Saints or from among five thousand names in the Roman Martyrology. Surnames had become fixed and hereditary in Spain by the fifteenth century. Before this, it was customary to have a given name to which was added the father's name in the genitive case. The son of Fernando Gonzalez, for example, would be Juan Fernandez. In the last two centuries, it has been the custom to take both the father's and the mother's last names. The father's surname comes first, followed by a y or a hyphen, then the mother's surname. It is the father's surname that descends to the children. For example, if Maria Gomez y Garcia marries Jose Ramirez y Martinez, her name would become Maria Gomez de Ramirez. Their son Julio would be Julio Ramirez y Gomez. By far the most popular baptismal name for girls is Maria. It is so common that other qualities or names referring to the Virgin Mary are added to create names such as Maria de los Dolores (Mary of Sorrows). Also popular are names that refer to festivals, objects, or events associated with the church and the adoration of the Virgin Mary, or names that refer to an abstract concept in the life of Jesus or Mary. Originally, these names, such as Asuncion (ascension), Concepcion (conception), Presentacion (presentation), and Rosario (rosary), were borne by both males and females. Now, however, they are used far more often for girls than boys. The use of diminutives, pet forms of names, and nicknames is common throughout the Spanish-speaking world. The suffixes 4to and -ita or 'dto and -cita can be added to almost any name to create a diminutive. For example, Carmela becomes Carmelita, Carmen becomes Carmencita, and Pepe, a pet form of Jose, becomes Pepito. Among the most popular female names are Maria, Guadalupe, Margarita, Juanita, Rosa, and Francisca. For males, Jose, Juan, Manuel, Jesus, and Luis are among the names chosen most often. |
