Basque surnames


Basque surnames refer to surnames with a Basque-language origin or a long, identifiable tradition in the Basque Country. They can be divided into two main types, patronymic and non-patronymic.
The patronymics such as Aluariz, Obecoz or Garcez are amongst the most ancient, going as far back as the 10th century. The Basque monarchy, including the first king of Pamplona, Íñigo Arista of Pamplona, or Eneko Aritza, were the first to use this type of surname. Patronymics are by far the most common surnames in the whole of the Basque Autonomous Community and Navarre.
The non-patronymic surnames are often toponymic ones that refer to the family's etxea, the historically all important family home. When a farm was rented to another family, often the new tenants were known locally by the farm name rather than by their officially registered surname. They also referred to the occupation of the head of the family such as Olaberria or Salaberria or could describe where their home was such as Elizondo.

History

Oldest records

The earliest documented Basque surnames occur on Aquitanian inscriptions from the time of the Roman conquest of Hispania and Gallia Aquitania. For the most part these can be easily identified with modern or medieval Basque surnames, for example ENNECONIS > Enekoitz.
Also SEMBECONNIS, possibly a derivative of the later surname Jimenez. V BELTESONIS engraved on the stella of Andriarriaga located in Oiartzun bears witness to a mixture of Roman and Vasconic tradition in the local aristocracy during the Antiquity.

Medieval names

García, one of the most frequent Spanish surnames, was originally a Basque first name stemming from Basque gartzea, 'the young'. Medieval Basque names follow this descriptive naming pattern about the person, pointing to physical features, family relations or geographical origin, e.g. Eneko may be a hypocoristic mother-to-child addressing, 'my little'.
In the Middle Ages, a totemic animal figure often stood for the person's presumable features. Otxoa was a Basque version of the Romance name Lope, or the other way round, with an early medieval prevalence all around the Pyrenees and west into the Cantabrian Mountains. It is now a surname, like its akin "Otxotorena", so similar in meaning to Spanish "Lopez". "Velasco" was a name, later to become a surname, derived from Basque "belasko", 'small raven'. "Aznar" is a medieval Basque, Gascon and Spanish surname arguably based on old Basque "azenari", 'fox'.
The non-patronymic, descriptive Basque naming tradition came to a halt when in the 16th century Catholic Church tightened regulations to Christianize practices that didn't stick to the Church's orthodoxy. Thereafter, Romance first names were imposed, while surnames went on to express place descriptions and parental origin for the most part. The patronymics are derived from the father through the suffix -ez, -oz, -iz or -az which means 'of'. The Basque language also expresses family links with the genitive suffix -ena, e.g. Perurena, Arozena, etc., meaning 'belonging to'.

Upper nobility

The first king of Navarre, Íñigo Arista of Pamplona, is said to hail from the lineage of Iñigo. While the use of -ez was the norm amongst the monarchs of Pamplona and the Lords of Biscay, the first record we have of the use of -ez in the monarchs of Leon is through the consort queens from Navarre: Jimena of Asturias, Oneca of Pamplona or Urraca Fernández.
Marital alliances between the Christian kingdoms of Leon and Navarre were typical in the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries in order to protect themselves from the southern Islamic attacks. Proof is the fact that the king Alfonso V of León was mainly of Basque-Navarrese origin through his mother Elvira García and his paternal grandmother, the aforementioned Urraca Fernández.
On the other hand, the first king of Aragón, Ramiro I of Aragon, was son of Sancho III of Navarre, grandson of García Sánchez II of Pamplona and great-grandson of Sancho Garcés II of Pamplona, all of them kings of Navarre who used the suffix -ez and that could have introduced it in this region.
As a result of the Reconquista, the Douro basin was repopulated, most probably by people mainly coming from Navarre, Biscay, Cantabria or Alava, who used the suffix -ez. Furthermore, it is possible that many of the most common patronymic Spanish surnames are not only of Basque-Navarrese origin, but also of royal and aristocratic background. It is logical to assume that the royal families from Leon, Navarre, Aragón and the aristocracy of Biscay, Alava or La Rioja would have had larger numbers of offspring than the regular population given their greater financial means and longer life expectancy.

Grammar and orthography

The grammar of the patronymic endings -ez, -iz or -oz is very similar to that of their use to denote origin or content such as egurrez, harriz or ardoz bete. In Basque, -z is added to the end of the word if it ends in vowel or -ez if the word ends in consonant. This grammar structure is not always the case in the patronymic surnames, e.g., González, offspring of Gonzalo. However, in documents of the 10th, 11th and 12th century linked to the Monastery of Santa Maria de Nájera, we find old versions of these surnames such as Galindoz, Enecoz, Albaroz, Ordonioz, Munioz de Alava o Lopiz de Bizcaya. It is possible that the proper Basque grammar of the patronymic was lost as its use was extended south of the Basque country.
During the medieval period Basque names were written broadly following the spelling conventions of the official languages of the day, usually Spanish and French. The main differences lie in the way the relatively large number of Basque sibilants are spelled. These are especially hard to represent using French spelling conventions, so on the whole, the French spelling of Basque words in general tends to be harder to reconcile with the modern spellings and the pronunciation. Also, vowel-initial Basque surnames from the Northern Basque Country acquired an initial d in many cases, often obscuring the original Basque form e.g. Duhalt < de + uhalte, Dotchandabarats < de + otxandabaratz, Delouart < del + uharte.
Since the introduction of Standard Basque and a common written standard, the number of non-indigenous spelling variants has begun to decrease, especially in Spain, taking on a form in accordance with the meaning of the surname in Basque, which remains irrelevant in other language spellings.
Modern StandardSpanish SpellingFrench Spelling
AroztegiArosteguiRosteguy
ElizaldeElizaldeElissalde/Delissalde/Delissalt
EnekoIñigo/YñigoÉneco/Ínego/
EtxeberriaEcheverríaEtcheverry/Detcheverry/Echeverri
EtxepareEchepareEtchepare/Detchepare
EzkibelEsquivelEsquibel
IntxaustiInchaustiYnchausty
ZubiriZubiriÇubiry

Note that in the French-based spellings the D is unhistoric and represents the French partitive particle d' "of".

Conventions

As is the legal convention in Spain, Basques in the South have double legal surnames, the first being that of the father and the second that of the mother. In the North, Basques legally have only one surname as is the convention in France. Nonetheless, most Basques can at least recite the surnames of their parents' and grandparents' generations.
The founder of Basque nationalism, Sabino Arana, demanded a certain quantity of Basque surnames from his followers in order to reject those of mixed Basque-Spanish descent.
In Alava and west of Navarre a distinctive formula has been followed, with the surname being composite, i.e. + de + , take for instance Fernández de Larrinoa, Ruiz de Gauna or López de Luzuriaga, meaning 'Fernández from Larrinoa', etc., which does not imply a noble origin. Therefore, surnames can be very long if both paternal and maternal surnames are required when filling out a form for example.
Such forms have been found from as early as 1053.
For a while it was popular in some circles to follow a convention of stating one's name that was invented by Sabino Arana in the latter part of the 19th century. He decided that Basque surnames ought to be followed by the ethnonymic suffix -ar. Thus he adopted the habit of giving his name, Sabino Arana Goiri, as Arana ta Goiri'taŕ Sabin. This style was adopted for a while by a number of his fellow Basque Nationalist Party supporters but has largely fallen out of fashion now.
These descriptive surnames can become very long.
The family will probably be known by a short form or a nickname.
The longest Basque surname recorded is Burionagonatotorecagageazcoechea sported by an employee at the Ministry of Finances in Madrid in 1867.

Types and composition

The majority of modern Basque non patronymic surnames fall into two categories:
Surnames from either category are formed using nouns, adjectives, a number of suffixes and endings such as the absolutive ending -a, the adjectival suffix -ko, and the genitive ending -ren. An example of the second class are Martinikorena.
Another would be Mikelena, "Michael's".
The following examples all relate to the location of the family home.
SurnameElementsMeaning
Arrigorriagakoaarri "stone" + gorri "red" + aga "place of" + -ko "of" + -a "the"the one of the place of the red stones
Aroztegiarotz "smith/carpenter" + -tegi "place"smith's workshop/carpentry
Bidartebide "way" + arte "between"between the ways
Bolibarbolu "mill" + ibar "valley"mill valley
Elkanoelke "vegetable garden" + no "small"small vegetable garden
Elizondoeliza "church" + ondo "nearby"near the church
Etxandietxe "house" + handi "big"big house
Etxarteetxe "house" + arte "between"house between
Etxeberrietxe "house" + berri "new"new house
Goikoetxeagoi "high place" + etxe "house" + -a "the"the high lying house
Ibaigurenibai "river" + guren "edge"river's edge
Ibarraibar + -a "the"the valley
Lardizaballar "bramble patch" + zabal "wide"wide bramble patch
Lekubarrilekhu "place" + barri "new"new place
Loiolalohi "mud" + -ola "place"muddy place
MariñelarenaMarinela "sailor" + suffix "rena"the sailor's
Mendiluzemendi "mountain" + luze "long"the long mountain
Mendozamendi "mountain" + hotza "cold"cold mountain
Urberoagaur "water" + bero "hot" + -aga "place of"the place of the hot water
Zabalazabal "wide" + -a "the"the wide one
Zubiondozubi "bridge" + ondo "nearby"near the bridge
Yñigo ene- "mine", -ko my little

Recognizing Basque non-patronymic surnames

Basque non patronymic surnames are relatively easy to spot through the high frequency of certain elements and endings used in their formation, bearing in mind the spelling variants. Outside the Basque Country, Basque surnames are often found in Spain and France, the former Spanish colonies in parts of South America and the Philippines and parts of the United States such as Idaho where substantial numbers of Basques emigrated to.
Modern SpellingMeaningOlder Spellings
-agaplace of
agirreprominenceaguirre
-aldesidealde
-artebetweenart
aurrefront
barreninner, lowest. Often in a pair with goien
behedownbe, ve
berrinewberry, varri, verría, verry
bideway, pathvida, vide
buruhead, endbure
garaihighgaray
goihighgoy
elizachurcheliç, elic, eliss, elex, elej
-etaabundance ofette
etxehouseech, eche, etche
gorriredcorri, gourry
aritzoakáriz, harits
arristoneharri, harry
iturrisource
mendimountainmendy
nekoenekoarquiñigo, erquiñigo, iñigo, necochea, yñigo
-olahut, forgeolha
-ondonearbyonde
sagarapple
-tegihome, workshoptegui
-zaabundance
urrufar, beyond
zabalwide, meadowçabal, zábal, zaval
-zaharoldzar, zaar
zubibridgesubi

Significant Basque surnames

These are Basque surnames that are well-known or famous around the world.
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