History
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 (the personal name Eneko plus the Latin genitive ending -IS) > Enekoitz.
García, one of the most frequent Spanish surnames, was originally a Basque first name stemming from Basque "gartzia", 'the young'. Mediaeval Basque names follow this descriptive naming pattern about the person, pointing to physical features, family relations or geographical origin, e.g. Eneko (Spanish Iñigo) may be a hypochoristic mother-to-child addressing, 'my little'. Modern surname "Jiménez", mediaeval "Xemenis" and like spelling variants, may stem from the root "seme", 'son', along the lines of similar Aquitanian instances (cf. "Sembeconni").
In the Middle Ages, a totemic animal figure often stood for the person's presumable features. Otxoa ("wolf") was a Basque version of the Romance name Lope, but now it is a surname. "Velasco" was a name, later to become a surname, derived from Basque "belasko", 'small raven'. "Aznar" is a mediaeval Basque, Gascon and Spanish surname arguably based on old Basque "azenari", 'fox' (modern Basque "azeri", cf. old Basque "Zenarrutza" vs. modern Basque "Ziortza").
This characteristic Basque naming tradition came to a halt when in the 16th century Catholic Church tightened regulations to christenize practices that didn't stick to the Church's orthodoxy (cf. given name Ochanda, 'female wolf', in Vitoria-Gasteiz still in the 16th century). Thereafter, Romance first names were imposed, while surnames went on to express place descriptions (e.g. "Luzuriaga", 'place of white earth') and parental origin (e.g. "Marinelarena", 'the sailor's son') for the most part.
Read more about this topic: Basque Surnames
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