Surnames and Migrations: The Barcelona Area (1451-1900)

Names and Their Environment. Proceedings of the 25th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, Glasgow, 25-29 

August 2014. Vol. 3. Anthroponomastics. Carole Hough and Daria Izdebska (eds) 

First published 2016 by University of Glasgow under Creative Commons licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) 

Surnames and Migrations: The Barcelona Area (1451-1900)1 

Joan Pau Jordà,  Joana Maria Pujadas-Mora, Anna Cabré 

Spain

Abstract 

Catalan onomastics, and specifically the evolution of surnames, has been conditioned by several demographic, political and social processes that have imparted singular characteristics over the course of centuries. The combination of these factors resulted in a significant number of homonymic surnames, making it impossible to correctly identify their geographical origin based solely on linguistic criteria. As a possible solution to this, this paper proposes the use of the cluster analysis method to introduce a further criterion for their identification and classification. Historical registers of Marriage License Books from the Diocese of Barcelona are the source selected to achieve this goal. These records, which collect information on more than two million surnames, were maintained between 1451 and 1905 in a set of 291 books (Llibres d’Esposalles) kept at the archives of the Barcelona Cathedral. 

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Introduction 

The study of historical migrations is one of the most difficult demographic phenomena to investigate due to the absence of specific records until recent times. Given this lack, it is  necessary to rely on indirect sources and methods that have already shown great potential, such as the analysis of surnames.2 However in the Catalan case – as well as in others – the evolution of onomastics, and specifically the evolution of surnames, has been conditioned by  several demographic, political and social factors that have imparted singular characteristics  over the course of centuries. The combination of these processes, as explained below, has made it necessary to propose the use of complementary methods to correctly identify the geographical origin of surnames and to complement existing linguistic criteria. 

1 This paper is part of the ongoing PhD research project of Joan-Pau Jordà, ‘Aproximación a las migraciones históricas a través del estudio de la información nominal’ [‘Approaching historical migrations through the study of nominal information’] supervised by Dr Anna Cabré and Dr Joana-Maria Pujadas-Mora. The project is  funded by the Spanish FPU program (AP 2010-5699) and is part of the larger Advanced Grand Project ‘Five Centuries of Marriages’ (ERC-2010-AdG_20100407) directed by Dr Cabré. The authors would like to  acknowledge the collaboration of Dr Patxi Salaberri, Dr Carles Castellanos, Dr Joan García-Roman, Dr Conchi Villar and Antía Domínguez in the preparation of this paper.

2 Some prominent recent examples are the papers of Mateos (2006: 83-102; 2010: 73-103), Busto et al. (2010: 287-296) or Berretta et al. (1993: 4), among others.