1Gregorio Salinero.

abstract systems of naming and instability in early modern anthroponymy

Studies of personal names are caught between two contradictory approaches: on the one hand to try and explain the considerable diversity of naming systems and name changes, and on the other hand to infer clear rules from the sum of original cases. It is of course necessary to define naming systems. In the case of early modern Spain, the question is how and to what extent the practice of giving children the surname of the father or of the mother came into use. Rather than postulating the evolvement of a stable anthroponymic situation limited to several regional forms, it is more useful to propose a hypothesis of early modern anthroponymic instability, considerably intensified by large-scale migrations, which reached unprecedented levels. A migrant’s name rarely carried onomastic baggage: it reneged on the past and wagered on the future. A name is a meagre crutch with which to make one’s way far from home: is it an exaggeration to say that there is no change of place without a change of name? A name, be it authentic or assumed, is one of the keys to power networks. A dynamic of alliance quite different from the principles of bloodline lineage then operated as a basic principle of naming. Let us hope that the great wealth of documents in the early modern period will reveal many interesting examples and numerous regional variations in practice.

2Roberto Bizzocchi.

defining a research programme on surnames in italy

This report presents a research program which was approved and financed by the University of Pisa in Spring 2008 and is devoted to the History of Italian surnames from the Middle Ages to the present time. The working group is strongly interdisciplinary, including historians, experts in legal history, linguists and experts in statistics. The focus of the research is on the reasons which determine choices of names and the hidden mechanisms underlying the formation and apparent stabilization of surnames for ordinary people in different historical periods and regions of Italy. The research will highlight the problems connected with the definition of personal and family identities within communities and in interactions with the State. One important aspect is the relationship between surname stabilization and stability of residence or mobility.

3Maria Giovanna Arcamone.

etymological diversity and melding of family names in italy

The various studies on Italian family names lead to the conclusion that from a lexical point of view these names may be derived from first names, place names and common names —that is to say surnames or nicknames. As regards etymology, the richness of the Italian language, with its conservation of linguistic strata, influences family names, which can of course be derived from Latin, but also from names of Germanic, Arabic or Byzantine Greek origin, such as Cirò, Laganà, Viganò. It should be noted that the renowned etymologist Walther von Wartburg (1888-1971) wrote that linguistically Italy is a Romania within Romania; northern Italy is indeed linked to the Gallo-Roman area, while southern Italy is linked to the Ibero-Roman area and to Romania in the east. This fragmentation of Italy is also evident in family names. In fact, the numerous internal and external migratory movements that have taken place have had a uniforming effect on the situation regarding family names, that is to say some family names have disappeared from Italy and are now only found in America. Moreover, important internal displacements occurred resulting in the transfer of certain southern family names to the north of Italy, just like other names which moved in the mid-20th century from the eastern Venetian region to the typical industrial centres of Lombardy, Piedmont and Liguria, or family names from the Marches and the Abruzzo areas which are now found in Rome and in Latium.

4Enric Porqueres i Gené.

lineages among the xuetes. limits and benefits of an anthroponymic approach

This article focuses on the social importance of names in Majorca. Naming in the island’s society is characterised by generalised use of family names and systematic patrilateral transmission. Taking the case of the Xuetes, this article raises a series of issues regarding the benefits of a statistical approach to patterns of family names in the spheres of economics, religion and marriage. A comparison of the discourse of those centrally involved in the process and behavioural tendencies on the one hand with contextualised analyses on the other highlights the limited explanatory potential of readings of reality which systematically put forward an idealised and static vision of social dynamics and ignore complexity and change.

5José Antonio Ballesteros Díez.

flexibility of naming and studies of filiation in 16th century mérida

It has been very difficult to establish links of descent between individuals who appear in 16th-century parish records in either Extremadura or Castile. In reality, rules for attributing first names and surnames are far from stable and indeed show considerable flexibility. A son may take his father’s Christian name and surname, but his brother does not bear the same surname (which is thus not in effect a family name) and their sister has a third, different surname. When migration is factored in, reconstructing genealogies becomes an extremely uncertain endeavour. Further factors add to the variety in usage, such as the use of a nickname, variable spellings of names or changing customs as to the use of only one surname or two linked surnames. While the favoured choice is the paternal followed by the maternal family name, it is nonetheless the case that names taken from outside the direct line of filiation commonly constitute some 40 % of samples. As for the Moriscos who were deported in the 1570s to the inland areas of the peninsula, one sign of their resistance to Christianisation is to be found in their frequent use of the first name Barnabé, referring to the apocryphal gospel of Saint Barnabé.

6Ana Zabalza Seguín.

a lasting inheritance: surnames in navarre in the early modern period

The focus of this article is the surname system in the old Kingdom of Navarre during the Early Modern Age. Firstly, we present the political and linguistic history of Navarre during those centuries, beginning with its incorporation into the Kingdom of Castile in 1515. In tandem with this change, Spanish became the language spoken by the local authorities both political and religious; but the vast majority of the population only spoke Basque, the sole remaining pre-Roman language of the Peninsula, rarely written at that time, and which they have maintained up to the present day. The surname system tended to stabilize during the 16th century but did not follow a single model, either in usage or patterns of transmission. However, most of the time there was a relationship between family name, native lands and household name. In the absence of an efficient administration, civil registers were not kept before 1870, so we may consider that the name a person received is above all related to the information available to those dealing with him/her. The multiplicity of names renders reconstruction of genealogies very difficult, particularly in cases where the link to land in the place of origin is weak. Finally, this article seeks to prove the hypothesis that due to an inegalitarian inheritance system, limited resources and limited accessibility, the poorest and remotest villages provided a body of surnames which were disseminated more widely in the peninsula than names which originated in the capital of the kingdom.

7Isabel Testón Núñez and Rocío Sánchez Rubio.

feigned identities and transatlantic migrations (16th-18th centuries)

Using information taken from Inquisition sources, private correspondence, notarial deeds and documentation in the General Archives of the Indies relating to possessions of deceased persons and to the fiscal proceedings of the Seville Chamber of Commerce (Contratación), this study analyses the factors which made changes of name possible, and the strategies which were used to carry out such changes in the context of Spanish migration to America from the 16th to the 18th centuries. The nature of the sources used led to the discovery of a practice intimately connected with breach of the law. The name changes which we have noted arise in a context of breach of migratory laws and the need to conceal criminal or punishable acts. Those who changed names followed the naming system then prevailing in Spain, which was imported into the Indies by legal migrants. The purpose of such actions, which were taken by men more than women, was to achieve a change of identity by altering a name, either totally or partially; the latter was the more frequent, perhaps because most of the individuals concerned did not wish to shed all connection with their past.

8Óscar Recio Morales.

irish surname: a problematical issue in eighteenth-century spain

Much has been written on the process of nationalisation of the masses. However, studies of the impact this process of nationalisation has had on foreigners in Spain are practically non-existent. Their assimilation has often been presented as a natural process of integration, free of conflict, but it may not have been that easy. This article shows how changes of names and surnames among the Irish who were present in Spain in the 18th century were neither a matter of chance nor isolated cases; on the contrary, they were part of a political strategy of defence against closely targeted attacks. On the accession of the first Bourbon, Felipe V (1700-1746), to the Spanish throne, some Jacobite refugees, mostly arriving from France, took up positions at court and in the army. The position of the Irish in the army, at court and in business usually aroused mistrust. Nevertheless, attacks on the privileges of grandees during the reign of the first Bourbon king and the total militarisation of Spanish society left a social gap which the Irish were able to fill, hence rising in society to the point of exercising the highest responsibilities. This provoked a reaction on the part of Spanish nobles who either deserted and went into exile or led a campaign of criticism of these foreigners in the form of lampoons or satires.

9Ciaran O’Scea.

naming practices among the irish in spain, rejection and assimilation (1600-1680)

The nature of the relationship between emigration and the evolution of naming systems in the early modern period remains relatively unknown. The case of Irish emigration to Castile in the period 1600-80 allows us examine the dynamics of change in Irish emigrants, who were forced to negotiate between their predominantly Gaelic anthroponomical system of origin and the adopted Castilian one. Although the use of European names was relatively widespread in Ireland prior to 1600, the same cannot be said of the dynamics of choice behind these names, which did not follow the European norm of parent, grandparent or godparent patterns. The results of a study of the naming patterns of c. 2.600 emigrants between 1600 and 1680 have revealed two principal elements. First, owing to an implicit identification of the Irish and the Moriscos during the second decade of the seventeenth century, the top five principal Gaelic names went into sharp decline and almost disappeared due to the need to differentiate Irish social-cultural norms from those of the Moriscos. At the same time Irish emigrants adopted a wider number of standardised European or international names. Second, over a longer period of time Irish immigrants also adopted Castilian practices in terms of the dynamics of choice but this really only became apparent in the second generation.

10Éamon Ó Ciosáin.

the place of anthroponymy in the study of irish migration to france (17th and 18th centuries)

The corpus of names resulting from two centuries of Irish migration to France (1590- 1790) opens up several avenues of research on naming processes. Spellings of names in French registers transcribe nominal material which was evolving in an Ireland under colonisation from a mainly Gaelic form to the English model of civil registry. Given the strongly local connections of most Irish surnames at the time, if one sets incidences of names in France in chronological order, some hypotheses concerning the causes of migration can be developed from names for groups for which documentation is otherwise rare or non-existent. Baptism is a key moment where the migrants are named, adults and children alike. First names among Irish migrants show a strong tendency towards assimilation, boosted by children taking the names of local godparents; godparents of status were frequent at Irish baptisms at the time in various parts of France. A similar phenomenon occurs in the French army, where an exceptional incidence of noms de guerre among Irish soldiers in the 17th century enables us to study their military identity and integration. Lastly, the Irish in early modern France capitalized on a lack of documentation and the linguistic form of Gaelic names in order to create a noble identity for themselves, particularly in the 18th century.

11Paolo Rossi.

family name distribution as a tool for analysing migratory forces

The study of the origin and diffusion of family names is very much an interdisciplinary issue. The purpose of this report is to present the main results produced in this field by research in genetics and in statistical physics, and an analysis of the information that can be obtained thanks to these methods, especially regarding levels of consanguinity and the dynamics of migrations. Some results are accompanied by specific examples taken from history and from present-day situations.

12Susan Elizabeth Ramírez.

in the name of the ancestors: living memory in the andes, 16th-17th centuries

Scholars have studied Andean songs, stories, rituals, dances, landscape, architecture, and quipus in order to retell Andean history from the native’s point of view. But one source of historical knowledge has been largely overlooked to date. The naming practices embedded in native societies constitute an alternative means of keeping memory current. My purpose here is to discuss the practice of naming men and specifically male kings and curacas (chiefs) in sixteenth and seventeenth century Andean societies, and more specifically to test the hypothesis that names could be associated with a category whose characteristics the individuals given those names were expected to represent and embody.

13Jean Paul Zúñiga.

african slaves and their descendants in seventeenth-century santiago de chile

Names, which are equally important for the study of social norms and the problems of identity, are particularly relevant in the case of enslaved population groups. This paper seeks to analyse the considerable symbolic significance of names for slaves; the name is not only a token of the humanity which is frequently denied them, but in some cases is also a means of expressing identity. For the historian especially, the study of names is a means of getting round the anonymity so often imposed by slavery and of following slave-engendered lineages over the course of time. In this case Santiago de Chile in the seventeenth century sets these genealogical structures in a specific context and enables us to analyse the varying patterns of social integration among descendants of slaves. These patterns show the way in which individuals, through their behaviour, succeed or fail in gaining membership of groups, and they also offer a critical view of identity-driven behaviour that tends to identify the essence of social groups.

14Manuel Lobo Cabrera.

indigenous canary islanders, moriscos and negroes

Proper names and common names embody a vast wealth of information and are invaluable signs of identity in the course of human life, but they are also one of the most eloquent reminders of the ethnic groups that once settled in a region. The case of the Canary Islands is a singular one. Before their conquest they were inhabited by a people of North African origin who had lost all contact with the outside world before the arrival of Europeans. The conquest and colonisation of the Canaries was carried out in such a way that the language, customs and religion of the victors were imposed on the native population to the point of wiping out the indigenous cultural heritage. In a few years, not only were personal names changed but places and geographical features were given new names and qualifiers. The population was baptised and named in accordance with the new regime. Although there were exceptions, the names of slaves generally reflected the identity of their owner, whose brand they would bear. This was the material sign of the slave’s dependence on his master, although in some cases their first names recalled the slave’s ethnic or geographic origins of the slave, or his qualities, faults or métier.

15Rocío Periáñez Gómez.

the naming of slaves in modern extremadura

What characterises the way in which the slaves who lived in Extremadura during the Early Modern Age were named is their adaptation to the social features of their environment. This is evidenced by the predominance of Christian names, indicating the intent of a minority —mostly African— to achieve cultural assimilation through religion. This is a means of transmitting dominant values and possibly a sign of cultural submission. The scant number of slaves recorded with Christian name and surname, and the fact that those who were bore the surname of their masters, makes such names a sign of ownership and of legal and moral domination.

16Bernard Gainot.

the names of black soldiers in 18th century french armies

The registration of more than a hundred black and coloured (mulatto) military men on the island of Aix, off Rochefort, gives us a clearer idea of the identity of these men enlisted in the colonies for the defence of the Republic. Military inspection rolls are well-established as the main documents for a social study of the army. I have tried here to use these documents as a basis for an anthroponymic study and in so doing to study the process leading to emancipation through arms. The abolition of slavery erased the traces of servile status. However, by examining descent (filiation), it is possible to formulate hypotheses as to the previous condition of these military men. Were they Creoles or Africans? Were they slaves or coloured freemen? The attribution of a nom de guerre or nickname moreover reveals a dual identity, one military and one colonial. The conclusions of this study are then broadened to include other ethnically composed military corps which were recruited in other periods: the Saxe Volunteers in the mid-eighteenth century, and in a different community, the black Parisian community which provided recruits for the American legion.

17Christiane Klapisch-Zuber.

artists’ names and fictitious lineages in renaissance italy

Dynasties of artists certainly did exist during the Renaissance. Art historians have revealed the way they were cemented through kinship, working together in a bottega, transmitting draught-books, tools, technical secrets and iconographic traditions or aesthetic sensitivity from one generation to the other; they also expressed their connections through given names and surnames. In this paper, however, I will talk about other types of « dynasties » or artistic lineages, of descent lines that might be described as virtual, or at least elective —that is, not based on consanguinity or matrimonial relationships. These found expression in the peculiarities of pupils’ given names and surnames which set them apart from customary local names.

18Françoise Dartois-Lapeyre.

names of singers and dancers in the 18th century

Eighteenth-century singers and dancers usually adopted an alias as a stage-name. However, the administrative archives of the Paris Opera and the notarial documents preserved in the Minutier Central of the National Archives reveal a considerable variety in the utilisation of names in these circles. There were several factors that prompted performers to adopt stage names, in particular attacks on dancing practices, which were particularly virulent in the 16th and 17th centuries. Sometimes, a physical characteristic or idiosyncrasies of stage performance are reflected in the nickname that was chosen. However, structures of filiation, whether factual or artificial, also operated in the system of adoption and transmission of names. As one might expect, the kind of modes typical of the worlds of dance and song prompted the assumption of foreign-sounding names, Italian or Spanish, giving rise to numerous stereotypes. The nomadic nature of musicians’ lives also played a role in the choice of stage names, which were intended to be displayed on notices and to attract audiences. In later life, a performer might shed a stage name in order to mark the end of a career and a return to an honourable existence.

19Bartolomé Bennassar.

the names of renegades

When Christians converted to Islam, whatever the motives, they changed identity and in particular changed their name. It has been possible to establish the new names or first names of almost 700 « renegade » men and some twenty women, who either managed to return to Christian lands and tell their tales, or reported the names of captives who remained in Muslim lands. We are rarely in a position to know the circumstances behind the choice of name, which may be that of the new master or a random choice. However, this is not the case in most instances. Some names were not given to the converted, whereas others are very frequent amongst them: renegades were not given the name Mansour, victorious; Mostafa (chosen by God on account of his purity) and Mourad (desire of God), on the other hand, were the most commonly attributed names. Names drawn from the family of the Prophet were often used, but this did not exclude the use of biblical names. In outlining numerous examples and individual cases, the article shows how, apart from circumstantial renaming, captives’ new names only became an essential part of their identity if they became true Muslims.

20José Emilio Sola Castaño.

renegade spies: names relating to intelligence on the mediterranean frontier

In the 16th century, the Mediterranean area became a centre where information from all over the world was gathered, from the Far East—by the Manila-Mexico route or via Macao and Goa. Literatura de aviso, with its typical form, the relación or account, may be described as frontier literature, and its authors —merchants, missionaries, administrators or spies— may be described as frontier people, providers of expert information in the case of the most brilliant of these authors. The abundance of information in this Mediterranean frontier area, which is familiar to us today, is also particularly notable if one approaches the protagonists —merchants, captives, soldiers and sailors, ambassadors and spies, but also Moriscos, Muladíes, refugees and exiles— from an anthroponymic standpoint. Persons may have two or three names depending on their careers or interests. The most representative examples of this are the Muladí corsairs Uchalí (the Calabrian Teigneux du Quixote, or Ali Bajá or Uluch Alí) or Hasan Veneciano (Denis Galera or Andrea Celeste, his Christian names); or again the Venetian merchant Aurelio Santa Croce, redeemer of captives, who lived in Istanbul and coordinated the secret agents of Philip II for two decades and whose secret name was Baptista Ferraro de Mengrelia.

21Claude Denjean.

shifting of names and identities among jews and conversos in the east of the iberian peninsula in the 15th century

In order to understand the relationship between personal names and the particular form of social and religious mobility which conversion in a context of intolerance constitutes, this article proposes not to separate the study of the naming system of converts in the Kingdom of Aragon from that of the Jews in order not to overstate the rupture and the naming at baptism, as changes of names and use of aliases was fairly widespread at the end of the Middle Ages. Conversion added to the stock of names those of godfathers — individuals who were already members of the convert’s social network— but this did not at first fundamentally alter the naming system. Choices of names indicate the cultural convergence of communities as much as the crossing of a religious frontier. The transition to Christianity operated in the same anthroponymic direction as the naming of Jews in Latin forms, despite the fact that Hebrew biblical names survived alongside the vernacular stock of names down to the 15th century. A name makes it possible to differentiate oneself within a general context of resemblance, and homonymy is a force for integration: thus, continuity wins out over rupture. The older naming system gradually fell away, but the convert’s identity was generally well known through his fama, in a society where anonymity was suspect. The anthroponymy of Jews and conversos was a flexible system capable of subtle expressions, and of marking biographical changes while at the same time signifying the unity of a destiny, and creating a fluctuating movement through differing versions of names. Versatility of naming became suspect in the 16th century when conversos, rich in names, were possessors of fractured identities whose stain they were compelled to erase.