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Cordobese names of the 15th century

Frequency of the names

The following names are the most common in the registries of the time. The spelling is almost surely modernized.
 

Men		Women
Name	Frequency (%)	Name	Frequency (%)
Juan	23.18	Mari / Maria	14.33
Pedro	13.81	Catalina	13.39
Alfonso	12.44	Isabel	10.78
Antonio	8.26	Leonor	10.13
Fernando	6.04
Diego	5.69
Gonzalo Martín Bartolomé Rodrigo Luis Francisco Miguel Andrés Lope	21.92	Marina Juana Beatriz Inés Teresa Elvira Constanza Lucía Ana Antonia Mencía	30.94
		Mayor Urraca Luisa Cristina Bartolomeba Aldonza Sancha Bernardina Victoria Florinda Elena Águeda Clarencia Angelina Francisca	6.51
Total	91.34	Total	86.08

Notes:

• Names were often those of apostles, angels, archangels and various saints. Amongst women María -the Virgin's name- is common, but names like Jesús and José (Joseph) were usually avoided. Other names were of foreign origin. Examples are Luis (like the Louis kings of France) and Cristóbal (Christopher, which became fashionable after Columbus' discovery).
• The names Antonio and Fernando increased in frequency during the 16th century.
• Juan and María were often part of composite names.

Number of surnames

It is standard in present-day Spanish-speaking lands to use two family names, normally one from the father followed by one from the mother. This was not the normal case in late medieval Cordoba, where people's names were often recorded with one, two or no last names. The following table presents data from the article at hand.
 

People with...	Number	Frequency	Notes
1 surname	1656	72.28%	There are cases of men (but no women) who often do without one of their surnames* Most women register only 1 surname.
2 surnames	567	24.75%	Apparently, both high and low-class people are included
No surnames	68	2.97%	Mostly friars and people of the lower classes?
Total	2291

* Examples: 

• (a knight) Alfonso de Angulo for Alfonso Martínez de Angulo
• Lope de Orbaneja for Lope Ruiz de Orbaneja

Frequency of surnames

Ruiz and Rodríguez were the most common ones, followed by Sánchez, Fernández, García, López, Martínez and González. Some 58% of those registered bore one of these surnames (derived from patronymics or, much less frequently, actual patronymics).

Note: 

• Rodríguez, Sánchez and López were increasing; the frequency of the rest became lower as the surnames employed increased in variety.

Other types of surnames

Apart from patronymic-derived surnames the following types of surnames were used:
 

Type	Examples	Notes
Surnames that are names	Blanca Guadalupe Maldonado Benavides	These can be confusing when used as a possible first surname - are they names or surnames?
Names given to people from a certain place or region	Burgalés Pedrocheño Zamorano	It is not known whether these are actual places of origin of the people or actual surnames
Toponymical surnames: "de" + placename	Provincial Capitals: Sevilla Córdoba León Salamanca Nearby secondary cities: Martos Porcuna Arjona Linares Villages of the kingdom (region) of Cordoba: Cabra Baena Gahete Priego	(all the names appearing are situated within the Crown of Castile) As in the previous case it is unclear whether these are places of origin or residence, or whether they are actual surnames.
Religious surnames	San Juan Todos los Santos (All Saints) Santa María
Commemorative surnames	Tafur, for Pero Ruiz Tafur (one of the conquerors of Córdoba) Clavijo (either for a member of the Castillian embassy to Tamerlán or for the battle of the same name Maderuelo (for the battle of that name) Matamoros Bocanegra (of Italian origin)
Hereditary (or not) bynames	"el Crespo" (the curly - male), "el Mozo" (the youth - male), "la Corbacha", (the whip? - female) "el Lindo" (the cute - male!)
Obtained through marriage	Women with same first names as their husbands	This is uncertain - they could easily be coincidences.
Byname related to the husband's surname	Isabel Rodríguez "la Romana", wife to Andrés Romano Juana Jiménez "la Bejarana", wife to Juan Jiménez Bejarano

Origin of the surnames and names

• Children did not always inherit one or two surnames from the father (44.63% of 844 cases) but could take on surnames from some other family member (paternal grandfather or uncle) or surnames with no known family relation. The mothers' surnames were not inherited as often (only 18.75% of 96 cases). It was not unusual for two brothers (or brothers and sisters) to have different surnames (around 25% of the cases).
• Male children often bore the name or surname(s) of their father. Only amongst the powerful was it common for the mother's name to appear as well.
• Some 21.73% (increasing to 29.72% in 1500-1510) of the 168 fathers registered gave their name to a male child, probably the firstborn. Names could also come from a paternal grandfather or uncle, or a godfather.
• Sometimes the name of the father was given to a female child. These could also get their names from their mothers (17% of 53 registered cases though the proportion may be higher - the names of the mothers were often ommitted), from a grandmother or an uncle. As in the case of male children, they could also inherit the whole set of names and surnames.
• Around 67% of the men and women who got their names from their father also took the father's surname.
• Some 25.6% of the women had the same surname as their husbands, but there is not enough data to know whether the cases are coincidence or a change of surname upon marrying.

Note:

Although the possibility of inheriting the name or surname from a grandfather or uncle is clear, I think the author is jumping to conclusions that are not certain. In particular the jump from Juan Sánchez to Pedro Sánchez to Juan Carrillón does not appear to me as an example of certain inheritance of the name Juan, as the name is a very common one and the surname varies substantially - or am I missing something?
 

Source

"Los nombres de los Cordobeses en la Segunda Mitad del Siglo XV", article by Mª Cármen Aguilera Castro, Universidad de Córdoba, published in "Vida Cotidiana de la España Medieval" (Actas del VI Curso de Cultura Medieval, Aguilar de Campoo, Palencia, España, 26-30 septiembre de 1994)

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