Anthroponymy

Anthroponymy or anthropological onomastics is the branch of onomastics that studies the origin and meaning of personal names, including surnames.

Introduction

Human beings (and some animals, such as dolphins) feel the need to identify with a specific designating element: an anthroponym or proper name. This fact seems universal to almost all human cultures, although some have been recorded where proper names are not used among family members but rather common names of kinship such as son / -a, father / mother, etc.

Structure of anthroponyms

In pre-state societies, the anthroponym is made up of a single proper name, often with some descriptive or symbolic meaning. In sedentary societies, with a hierarchy and a large number of individuals, the anthroponym of people often consists of at least one given name, proper to the individual, and some type of family name. Thus the family name can serve so that the descendants of influential members of society preserve the prestige or power of the family through the use of the name. Or, as happens in many modern societies, the combination of a given name and a family name solves the problem of the existence of a limited number of anthroponyms, and avoids the confusion that two individuals have the same anthroponym.

Origin of anthroponyms

Although the vast majority of anthroponyms are historically derived from common names, in many societies the original meaning of the anthroponym is no longer transparent and is unknown. Thus, in most Western societies, the name is just a designation that does not have any particular meaning and whose historical origin is only known through etymological study. On the other hand, in many of the known societies, most of the anthroponyms have their origin in a name or a recognizable meaning, since in these societies the possession of a certain name occurs for symbolic reasons important to the group.

Historical Linguistics

Onomastic etymology or the study of the historical origin of personal names is frequently of interest in studies of social change, migration, and interaction between different societies. Thus, the presence of certain anthroponyms originating from language A among the speakers of language B may indicate both the incorporation of people from one linguistic group into another, and the influence of one cultural group on another. For example, in Spanish the presence of Hebrew names is due to the influence of the Judeo-Christian religion on the Latin speakers who gave rise to Spanish. On the other hand, the presence of Germanic names in Spanish was originally due to the incorporation of people of Visigothic origin into the Hispano-Roman populations of the Iberian Peninsula. On other occasions, when the anthroponyms incorporated into a language from another are few or isolated, it may be due to cultural fashion or more or less accidental historical factors.

Western anthroponymy

According to the first book of the Bible, Genesis, the name of the first human being is Adam, which means: Terrestrial Man; Humanity. It comes from a Hebrew root that means “red.” The custom in this culture was to name the newborn with what the father said when he saw him for the first time.

The Romans (see Roman name) composed their designation with five elements in this order: praenomen, nomen gentile or gentilicium (name of the gens or clan: families united by a single ancestor), patronymic (in genitive followed by filius), indication of tribe and cognomen (nickname or nickname, generally associated with some physical mark: Cicero, "wart"; Cesar, "hairy"; Tacitus, "mute"; Flaccus, "lazy"). It used to be abbreviated by omitting the patronymic into only three praenomen, nomen, cognomen: Marcus Tullius Cicero, Gaius Julius Caesar. If he was celebrated for some military feat, the agnomen was added: Publius Cornelius Scipio the Africanus; Publius Cornelius Scipio the Numantine. They had so few praenomina or given names (eighteen, many of them exclusive to one clan) that when they ran out they gave their children names of numbers: Quintus, Sextus, Septimius, Octavius, Nonius, Decius, etc., something typical of a practical spirit like the one attributed to them. Except for this, the Latin and Greek onomastics are more or less the same, except that in Greece compound names abound and greater flexibility is customary: from Mycenaean and Hellenistic times, only the name and patronymic are obligatory, expressed by means of an adjective (thus, in Mycenaean, in Homer, and in the Aeolian dialects) or by the genitive of the father's name. Mythical names, of ancient heroes or celebrities, were reserved for slaves or the lower classes.

Christianity extended the custom of using Biblical, liturgical and moral virtues Hebrew names, and of using a specific ceremony to impose them, called baptism; the Celtic and Germanic peoples, on the contrary, indicated in their names the virtues related to warrior merit and spread this type of names throughout Europe during the barbarian invasions of the 5th century. The Council of Trent (16th century) consecrated the custom of adopting names of saints from the Catholic Church, with which the richness in the assortment of names was greatly reduced and many that were very old in Spanish became extinct (Lope , Aldonza, Nuño, Munia, Elo, Garci, Galindo, Godina, Tello, Fortún and its variant Ordoño, Yago, Sancho, Suero, Munio, Gutierre, Oneca, Toda, Ava, Constanza, Mafalda, Mendo, Mengo , Moriel, Cardiel, Elfa, Brianda, Violante, Mencía, Urraca, Lambra, Fadrique, Amicia and many others). The names of regional dedications to the Virgin Mary then became common: Pilar, Rocío, Montserrat, Macarena, Candelaria, Begoña, Guadalupe, Loreto, Almudena, Aránzazu, Covadonga, Fuencisla, Blanca, África, Nieves, Prado... and of dogmas, sacraments and religious images: Immaculate Conception, Concepción, Rosary, Ascension, Dolores, Esperanza, Encarnación, Consuelo, Ángeles, Mercedes, Virtues, Gloria, Pastora, Remedios, Socorro... Names were also spread Greek, sometimes distorted beyond recognition (Ñuflo, which comes from the Greek Onófre / Ὀνούφριος, from the Egyptian Wnn-nfr, which means "the one who is continually good"). Until the Council of Trent, the people of the Castilian Middle Ages also used diverse onomastic applications of a praising nature, such as Lozano, Valiente, or of an affective nature such as Tender, Beautiful, Good, etc.; and birth formulas of good omen, such as Buendía, Alegre, and alluding to consecrations to God or to events and holidays of the Catholic liturgy, such as Domingo, Diosdado, De Jesús, De Dios, who sponsored a desire for the son to be ordained secular or regular. Until recently, female names applied to males were rare, but not strange, if they had a religious overtone. The anti-Semitism of Christians also discredited names that had recognizable Hebraic connotations, such as Ephrem (Ephraim) or Jacob. However, surnames that denoted illegitimacy or bastardry persisted: Exposito (from the Latin exposĭtus, "abandoned"), Tired, Diosdado etc... The anonymous abandoned children were a problem for civil registrars. Some of these children bear the name of the city where they were found (toponymic surname). Because most were raised in church orphanages, some were also given the surnames Church or Churches and Cross. Blanco ("blank", instead of "white") was another option. A toponymic first surname could have been followed by Iglesia-s or Cruz as a second surname. Since 1921, Spanish law made it possible to forget the infamy of the surname Expósito by legally changing the surname. In Catalan, the surname Deulofeu ("God did it") was often given to these children. And in Aragon abandoned children would receive the surname Gracia or de Gracia, because it was thought that they survived by the grace of God. But these surnames were a shame for those who had them; Some pious archbishop, like the enlightened Francisco Antonio Lorenzana, fought him by giving his surname to the foundlings in his archdiocese.

In the Hispanic sphere, due to the non-existence of the concept of official name, the order of surnames was fundamentally chaotic until the century XIX, in which the Civil Registry law was developed and it was established to have two surnames, the father's first and the mother's later, and that the woman's maiden name should not be lost when marrying (with some exceptions in Catalonia) which, however, could be added when marrying the husband's with the preposition "de"). However, since 1999, in Spain, parents can change the order of the surnames if they they want it.

The denominations of slaves in the Hispanic world used to follow this order: 1st given name (Spanish, of Christian origin), 2nd last name (Spanish or indigenous, or derivations of African forms), 3rd race: black or dark / mulatto / zambo / pardo / cuarterón de mulatto / cuarterón de zambo / sacalagua / moreno(a) / mestizo(a), 4th circumstance of birth: criollo (that is, born a slave) / bozal (recently brought from Africa), 5th caste or ethnicity: angola / mandinga / carabalí / lucumí / cocolí / folupo, 6th name: Newfoundland, Lima, Panama, Chiclayano, 7th place of origin: Biafra, Congo, Lima, Chiclayo, Ika, etc. 8th farm or place of work: (of) the San José Hacienda, San Nicolás Hacienda, etc. 9th trade: baker, farmer, blacksmith, bricklayer, shoemaker, 10th condition slave / free and 11th master (or owner): of Don X / of Doña Z / of Captain X / of your Grace Z / of Licenciado Don Y. These denominations were flexible and most of the time they offered a summary version: Christian name + name of African origin + name Spanish family name granted by the owners through patronage or baptism + adjectives of qualities and physical or moral defects + origin within the American territory. As for the African slaves from the United States, the religious taboo made their first name commonly the of a pagan god or of mythology: Venus, Jupiter, Saturn... The last name was, however, that of the master or owner of the slave, although many, when they were released after the Civil War, they changed it to Freeman, "free man".

Until the Middle Ages, only first names were used. To differentiate between two people with the same name, an indication related to the place where the person lived, the work they did, or any other characteristic feature was added. Thus, two people with the name Juan were distinguished, for example, by calling one Juan, the miller and another Juan, the one from the fountain. When surnames were instituted, this custom was maintained, which is why surnames such as Molinero or Lafuente still exist today. These customs were also useful to hide names that were not very prestigious or of Judaic or Moorish origin.

In Spanish, surnames ending in -ez are very common, such as González, Martínez or Sánchez. These endings indicate that an ancestor had a given name, in this example, Gonzalo, Martín or Sancho, and that their children were given formerly called Juan, son of Gonzalo; Juan, son of Martín or Juan, son of Sancho, respectively. These names are known as patronymics. In other languages the same thing happens:

• The prefixes Mac- or Mc- Scots mean "son," for example, "MacPherson" is the son of Pherson.
• In Semitic languages we have, in Hebrew the word ben 'son' (Ben Gurion, Ben Yehuda), analogously the equivalent form in Arabic ibn 'son' (Ibn Jaldun, Ibn Zaydun, Ibn Hayyan), and the Aramaic form bar (Bar Kokhba).
• In Germanic languages the terminations are frequent -sohn. (German) -son. (English, Norwegian, Swedish) and - (danese): "Petersen" is the son of Peter (Pedro), "Mendelssohn" is the son of Mendel and "Gustafson" is the son of Gustaf. In Icelandic form has been preserved - lenttir 'hija', common in the Viking era (Olofsdotter).
• In Slavic languages you have the endings -(o)vich or -vic. which also indicate filiation.
• In modern Greek there are endings -poulos (-που λος), -akis (-κις) and - adis (-άδης), among others; in ancient Greek the most widespread was -idēs (-ίδης), hispanized as -.
• In Georgian you have -shvili or -adze.in both cases 'son'.
• In the Armenian language you have -ian or - Ryan."Krikorian" is the son of Krikor (Gregorio).

Structure of anthroponyms

A person's name (anthroponym) consists of a given name and one or more surnames, according to the customs of each language and country. The given name is given by the parents to the children when they are born or at the baptism (they can be different, since the first counts for civil purposes and the second for religious purposes). Hence the expression "pila", which comes from "baptismal font". On the other hand, the surname or family name, commonly that of the father or that of the father and that of the mother (although in some countries the order can be reversed, or when marriage is contracted, change one to that of the spouse or exclusively adopt that of the spouse), passes from one generation to the next. The word surname comes from Latin and has the same origin as "appeal", that is, "act of calling". Currently, in Spain, the proper name of the children is one of the data provided to the Civil Registry at the time of birth registration and can be changed for justified reasons before a judge.

In Russia, the anthroponym of a person, in addition to the first and last name, consists of a patronym derived from the father's given name that is indicated in the middle of both, such as Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (Lev, son of Nikolai Tolstoy).

Anthroponyms of Spanish

The anthroponyms of Spanish have mainly six origins:

• Roman Anthroponyms, which represent the oldest stadium and have been preserved in the language and have suffered in general the same kind of phonetic changes as the Spanish heritage words.
• Hebrew and Aramaic Anthroponymswhich began to be introduced especially from the second and third centuries when the number of people of Christian religion on the Iberian peninsula began to be appreciable.
• Greek AnthroponymsThey basically came with Christianity. Since many of the early Christians came from the eastern part of the Roman Empire, where the Greek was the usual language, the following Christians continued to use Greek names, and the biblical characters and the saints helped to popularize them even more.
• German anthroponymslinked to the entrance to the peninsula of the Suevos and Visigoths that, quickly, constituted the ruling class. Originally these anthroponyms were given only in the German nobility, but gradually they were being adopted by people of Hispanic-Roman descent, due to the prestige they carried.

• Arab anthropogenicpresent from the Arab invasion. By religious prejudice to the use of Muslim names, the name of a pillar of Arab origin is very scarce, and has been indirectly introduced: Fatima, Almudena or Azucena for being names of the Virgin Mary's advocations, and Obdulia for being the name of a holy martyr; the number of surnames is much greater: Cid, Padilla, Medina etc. Subsequently, with the arrival of Arab immigration to Hispanic countries, the use of names like Omaramong others.

• Anthroponymous pre-Romans. There are very few left to use today: Indalecio It's the most exemplary case. From the Iberian, names have been lost Baesadin (Tito Livio XXXIII 44, 4), Bilistage (T. Liv. XXXIV, 11, 29), Cerdubelus (T. Liv. XXVIII 20, 11), Corribilon (T. Liv. XXXV 22, 5), Edesco (T. Liv. XXVII 17, 1), Edeco (Policy X 34, 2), Indibilis (Maximum IV, 3) and Astolpas (Diodoro XXXIII 7, 4). Inscriptions in Greek alphabet also have Iberian anthropomes as Bassped, Basis, Elerbas, Golobiur, Headquartersgon, Nabarbas, Naln Bjbead.com...

Roman anthroponyms

Romance names in Spanish and other Romance languages derive from both praenomina (given names) and nomina (family names) in Latin. Derivative nouns abound among these seconds, which we see in the endings in -io (Antonio, Julio, Emilio...), -ino / -ano (Saturnino, Julián/Juliano, Emiliano,...). Already for the Romans, many of these anthroponyms lacked a transparent meaning -because they came from other languages, such as Etruscan-, so that the given name of a person was already rarely understandable at the end of the empire, and its imposition on a child had more to do with family tradition or more abundant local names.

Hebrew and Aramaic anthroponyms

As examples, it is enough to recall the names of some biblical heroes: Noah (Noah), Isaac (Yiṣḥaq), Sara, Moses (Moshe), Joshua (Yehoshua), Isaiah (Yesha'yah), etc.

Some Christian biblical names are of Aramaic origin, since in the first century AD. C., Hebrew was no longer the colloquial language in Judea. Among the typically Aramaic names are above all Thomas and Martha.

Germanic anthroponyms

In Spanish anthroponymy, a large number of names are of clear Germanic ascription, through Gothic influence; among them are Ramiro, Bermudo, Galindo, Rodrigo... These have the structure "adjective + noun" or "adjective + adjective", the two forming roots being of East Germanic origin, that is, Visigothic. Some examples of this onomastics are:

Gothic athal 'noble' + funs 'preparated' = Ildefonso  Alfonso

Gothic frithu 'Peace, peace' + nanth 'atrevido'  Fredenandus  Fernando

Gothic hroths 'fame' + sinths 'direction' = Rudesindus  Rosendo

Gothic athal 'noble' + wêrs 'fiel' = Adalvira  Elvira

Gothic gunthis 'light' + alv 'spirit' = Gundisalv  Gundisalvus  Gonsalvo  Gonzalo

Pre-Columbian anthroponymy

Pre-Columbian Indians generally had names with a transparent meaning, for the speakers, unlike what happens with most names in modern European cultures.

In South America we find:

Bachué the mother of humanity, according to the Chibchas.

Boupé, primitive head of the Tairas, Vaupés Indians.

BuliraPrincess of the Panches.

Buynaima, water man, according to the Murui Muinames.

Gerafaicoño, 'woman of the Sa', according to the Witotos'

Guarapurú, boss guajiro.

Ibsnaca, princess pijao.

IruyaPrincess of the Grand Caquetá.

JáFirst human according to the Yaguas. Já means 'water'.

Kimakuthe first man according to the Koguis)

Teuso or TenthGreat caquetá warrior.

In Peru, we find some names in Quechua such as:

Among the ancient Mexicans we find names like:

Cuāuhtemōc 'aguill that descends'

Motēuczōma 'our angry lord'

Cuitlāhuac '[who] was placed in office'

Xicoténcatl 'Boca de jicote'

Popoca 'Humear'

Tonatiuh 'Sol'

The Mayans contributed others, which are:

Among North American prairie peoples, such as the Sioux, we find:

Thathanka Iyothanka

Hehaka Sapa ('Alce negro')

Itonagaju.

Anthroponymy terminology

• Agonimo or poetic name: the one that ideally gives the characters of a narrative work. Don Quixote, Dulcinea...
• Anemonimo or eolionimo: name of specific winds: aperture, deerzo, trantana, siroco, simún, noto, mistral, aquill, céfiro, descuernacabras...
• Anonymous: that has no name, or whose name is ignored. In the latter case it is sometimes supplemented with the acronym N.which corresponds to the Latin Nemo or nobody.
• Antonomasia: use of its own name as a common name: "lazarillo, celestina, quijote, donjuán". It can be used with the article "un": "un judas", a nerón", "un stalin"
• Anthroponymous is any name of human person, one of the types of ♪.
• Surname: name that follows the autonimo or name of pile.
• Nickname: see "mote".
• Aptonimo: it is a pattern that has a meaning linked to the person who carries it, the most common is the relationship with his trade or occupations.
• Asterónimo: specific name of stars or constellations.
• Authonymous: first name or first name, which precedes the last names.
• Cognomen: what Roman antiquity would correspond to a family name.
• Criptonimo: false name under which the true one is hidden.
• Chronicle: specific name - or defined description- of events associated with the temporal dimension of military, political, social, religious, aesthetic, festive: The Reconquista, the Pepa, the Glorious, the Reform, the Counter-Reformation, the Renaissance, Christmas.
• Common International: Unique and universal name or name of a generic drug other than its commercial names.
• Doxonymous: specific name (or defined description) of opinion groups: "the Catholics, the Stoics, the Communists, the Neos"
• Endonimo: it is the name with which the inhabitants of a territory refer, in their native language, to a person (or to a toponymous) considered to be his own; for example, Juana de Arco is called, in his original French, "Jeanne d'Arc". It's the opposite of the exonym.
• Eponymous: adjective that indicates that a famous name has given its name to a village, tribe, city, period or time. For example, Alexander the Great is an eponymous of the city of Alexandria. There are false eponyms due to popular etymology, such as pretending that Rome comes from the name of its first king Rómulo (probably it was backwards), or that Lisbon owes its name to the hero Ulysses.
• Ergonimo: see brand.
• Spoon: that different anthroponym from the battery name of the same one that always possesses one or several functions that come to be added to its intrinsic designative function.
• Ethnopharuism: derogatory name given to the natural people of a different town, city, region or country, verbgracia, gabacho instead of French.
• Ethnic: name of a village or ethnicity.
• Exonymous: is the name of person (also applied to toponyms) adapted to the phonetic and idiosyncrasy of another language, and with which it is known outside its language or linguistic sphere. For example, the famous Egyptian Sultan "Salahuddin" is hypanized as Saladin, or the queen "Elizabeth II" as "Isabel II". It's the opposite of the condom.
• Fitonimo: name of a plant. It is often very diverse from one to another. Examples of own names that are phytonomous: Rosa, Violeta, Susana (from the Hebrew, means "lirio"), Azucena (with the same meaning as the previous, but come from the Arabic), Aránzazu (from the Basque Country) arantz = "thorn").
• Gentile: name of a clan among the Romans and, in general, name of the inhabitants of a place; in the latter case it is also called demon; examples of names originated in Gentiles: Roman, Cayetano, Francis.
• Glotonimo or Glossoimo: name of a language or language.
• Hagionimo: name of a saint.
• Heteronimo: pseudonym that it is not only used to evade its own name, but to which it is given a personality and even a biographical trajectory. For example, Fernando Pessoa's heteronimos or Antonio Machado's "Complementaries". The person who invents those heteronimos is called "ortonimo".
• Hypocorsticism: Affective deformation of an anthroponymous, characteristic of a family environment or of friendship: "Chema" (of José María or José Manuel), "Paco" (of Francisco), "Manolo" (of Manuel), "Tolín", "Pepa" (of Josefa)...
• Homonimo: the person who has the same name as another.
• Ludonimo, deformation of a specific name: "Son of the Great Potter", or tipónimo, proverbial name or progenic: the one given to stereotypes without real existence: "As Peter for his house", "Muera Marta, die ferta".
• Brand brand: ergonomic or commercial name of a product, usually chosen by marketing criteria (marketing)
• Matronimo: name of a family transmitted by the mother
• Monónimo: unique name that usually identifies a person, such as Voltaire or Colette
• Mote, alias, nickname or hen: a name usually pejorative or derogatory given to a person. Used alias especially when it is the denomination that a criminal uses ("war name") to evade his identification for justice.
• Necronym: denomination with which the name of a deceased is avoided.
• Artistic name: name that artists usually adopt to be better remembered and recognized, because they are more sound than their own.
• Commercial name: distinctive designation of a product or establishment. It is often called a brand.
• Name of war: denomination used to develop some activity or work generally considered illegal or clandestine, to protect itself from possible reprisals. For example, the false names used by the spies, the meretrics, the terrorists, or the guerrillas: "Subcomandante Marcos", or "Abu Ammar" as a name adopted by Yasir Arafat; it is believed that the names of warlords of antiquity could have been names of war adopted by them, as is the case of the Gallo Vercingetórix.
• Legal name: is the name of the legal persons registered in the office of the Civil Registry.
• Battery name: One who appears first in the full denomination. "Luis", "Josefina" etc.
• Name of pen: pseudonym of a writer or journalist: "Azorín" was called José Martínez Ruiz.
• Name of reign: the official name adopted by a prince or another nobleman when he ascends to the throne of a country, or an ecclesiastical when he is elected pope or patriarch: Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia was called Tafari Makonnen, Jorge VI of the United Kingdom was called Albert, Pope Francis was called Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople was called Demetrio Archondonis. The abandoned name would be a kind of retronomy.
• Religious name or of religion: the one that is usually adopted when entering a regular, male or female religious order. For example, John of Yepes Álvarez was called John of the Cross when he entered the order of the Carmelites, Teresa of Cepeda and Ahumada was Teresa of Jesus when he entered the female branch of the same order, Edith Stein was called Teresa Benedicta of the Cross when he became a cheeky Carmelite, and Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu adopted Teresa's. The name that is abandoned is another type of retronimo.
• Odonimosometimes also written with an initial "h", Hodonimo, is the name itself that designates and applies to a communication pathway or communication space. An odomeous can be the name of a street, a road, a highway, a square, a rural road, a path, or any other public space.
• Ortonimo: see "heteronimo".
• Patronymic: name indicating filiation, which refers to the father.
• Praenomen: what in Roman antiquity would correspond to our first name.
• Pseudonimo: false name used to hide the real name.
• Retronimo: name that has been abandoned or is no longer used because it has been replaced by another. It is also called the name that arouses a new parallel name that designates something with what it forms a couple: the name of the famous bullfighter "El hijo de la Capea" subcited the formation of "El hijo de la Palma", another famous bullfighter, so it is his retronimo.
• Overname: an apelative name, which is sometimes added to the surname to distinguish two people who have the same, or scoponimo qualifier ("El Pelusa", "Lagartijo") or mote with which a person is especially distinguished; it can also be a formula: "El Caballero de los Leones", "El Niño de la Capea"...
• Theophoric name: name that includes in its elements the name of some divinity: Abdallah, Theophilus, Amadeo, Diogenes, Elijah, Baltasar, Tutmosis, Thorstein...
• Tecnónimo: name of a person through the name of one of his descendants.
• Teónimo: name of a divinity: Thor, Lug, Zeus, Mars, Baal, Ammon.
• Tocayo or ♪: familiar, homonymous or name with which two different people coincide, and which can lead to confusion.
• Toponymous or place name; many toponyms have derivated in people's own names: Javier, Ainhoa, Assisi, Borja, Lorena, Aitana, Amaya. In surnames it is a much more common phenomenon.
• Zoonymous: name of animals, such as Lupo or Lope, Ataúlfo or Adolfo (from Germanic wulf = "lobo"), Arturo (from the Celta art = "yes"), or in Russian Medvédev (yes).