The Politics of Language

Names, Surnames & Eponyms

TCL 294: Culture, Language and Learning

January 24, 2013
Arizona State University
Salvador Gabaldón, Presenter 1
 Our Nation’s Top Two
Languages
 1600: Algonquin and Lakota
 1800: English and German
 2000: English and Spanish
 2200: ?

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 Spanish in the Southwest
“In the mid-sixteenth century, our Hispano and Mexicano
ancestors begin to settle along the Río Grande of Nuevo
México, bringing to this land a new language. They gave
names to the land and its features. It is in the naming that one
engages in the sacred; that is, by naming, one creates a
sacred sense of time…The [Spanish] language used in that
naming ceremony is our birthright.”

— Rodolfo Anaya

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Spanish in the U.S.

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 The Honor of Second Place
 Adam and Eve
 Valedictorian and Salutatorian
 General Motors and Ford
 George Washington and John Adams
 Gold Medal and Silver Medal
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English (AND or OR) Spanish
 Newt Gingrich, March 31, 2007, to the National
Federation of Republican Women in Washington:

"We should replace bilingual education with immersion

in English so people learn the common language of the
country and so they learn the language of prosperity,
not the language of living in a ghetto."

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 Why the hate?
 Freedom of speech in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights

 Capitalism: The customer’s always right!

 The Spanish and English languages are cousins

 They share a nearly identical alphabet and sound system

 Both languages derive most of their vocabulary from

Latin

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 Rich English-Spanish Connections
 Linked by birth (both born after the collapse of Rome)

 Linked by geography (Spain-England, U.S.-Mexico)

 Linked by residence (US expats in Mexico; Mexican expats in US)

 Linked by names (Many of our states & territories are in Spanish:

Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico
Puerto Rico and Northern Mariana Islands)

The word “Arizona” came into English through Spanish

from the Basque word “arizonac,” meaning good oak. 8
 Human Connections
 Naming is a human activity common to all cultures across the
world, yet the concept of a surname is a relatively recent
invention promoted by societies for economic and political
reasons.

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 Government and ID
 Governments, since the dawn of nations, have sought ways
to identify individuals.
 Surnames were invented in response to the government’s
need to document individual identities, particularly for tax
purposes and to establish land ownership.

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 Our Shared First Names
 Since the characteristics admired in one culture are often also
admired in another, similar names appear in various languages
independently. For example, the English name “Peter” and the
Kenyan-Tanzanian name “Jabali”: both mean rock, indicating
strength and toughness, two admired masculine qualities.
 Sometimes a name in one language has a cognate in another
language, which means that they appear the same or nearly the
same in writing, such as Peter and Pedro, both derived from
the Greek petros. English-Spanish cognates are so common
that monolingual English speakers at times can use cognates to
read Spanish with nearly perfect comprehension. 11
 Using L1 to Read L2
 En agosto Daniel y su papá visitarán al
magnífico zoológico municipal de San Diego.
Allí observarán varios tipos de animales,
incluyendo los tigres, los elefantes, los
hipopótamos, los cocodrilos y las jirafas.
Daniel cargará una cámara para tomar fotos.
En septiembre presentará las fotos en su clase
como parte de un reporte titulado “Mi
vacación en California.”
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Our Names Connected by Religion
Sometimes names appear in many languages because they share a
common origin in a religious text, such as the Bible or the Koran.
Take for example the name John, which began as a Hebrew name:

Hebrew: Yohanan Irish: Sean

Spanish: Juan German: Johan
Russian: Ivan English: John
Arabic: Yahya Korean: Yoan

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 Identity
Much of education is about self-discovery:

 Who am I?
 Where do I come from?
 How am I like others?
 How am I unique?

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 Names Reinterpreted
 The process of discovering one’s place in society is
especially important to immigrants
 The children of immigrants can have a particularly difficult
time finding themselves, caught between
 Two languages
 Two cultures
 And sometimes…two names

José o Joey?
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 Our Two Initials
 In the Middle Ages, European alphabets began to change
 J was born from I
 Y was often substituted for I
 Ñ was born from N
 W was born from U

 U became V in the 18th Century

 An interesting research project: “Discover the origin of the
letters that form your initials…”

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 The Letter O*
“For centuries the robust O has conveyed emotion and
demanded attention in verse and oratory. It is perhaps
our most expressive letter, and hardest working.
Among O’s features are its many shades of
pronunciation in English; its uses as a word unto itself;
and its beautiful written form—a circle, a ring,
intriguing and satisfying to the eye. O is the only letter
whose name creates its shape, however imperfectly, on
the speaker’s lips.”
*Sacks, David. Letter Perfect: The Marvelous History of Our Alphabet From A to Z (2003)17
 La “LL,” la “Ñ” y la “RR”
 In classical Latin, geminate (or "double”) consonants
were phonemic. Over time, the Spanish pronunciation
of double L, double N and double R slurred into unique
sounds recognized as distinct letters.
 English example: “announced” versus “unnamed”

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The Ñ in Spanish Surnames
 Acuña  Oñate

 Bañuelos  Peña

 Cáñez  Quiñónez

 Cariño  Treviño

 Garduño  Viña

 Muñoz  Yáñez

 Núñez  Zúñiga
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 Ancient Surname Links
 The Germanic people known as Visigoths ruled Iberia for
two centuries and left a linguistic influence that is still
evident in Spanish surnames:
 Heinrich-Enríquez-Henderson
 Walthari-Gutiérrez-Walterson
 Hrodric-Rodríguez-Rodrickson

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Names as Denotative “Mirror Images”
Spanish English

 Sra. Campos  Mrs. Fields

 Sr. Fuentes  Mr. Wells

 Lucía Estévez  Lucille Stevenson

 Adán Pérez  Adam Peterson

 Sgt. Herrera  Sgt. Smith

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 Dr. Molina  Dr. Miller

 Name Dictionaries
 Hanks, P, and Hodges, F. A Dictionary of Surnames. New
York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1998.
 Coghlan, Ronan. Book of Irish Names. New York, NY:
Sterling Publishing Company, 1989.
 Keister, Linda Wolf. The Complete Guide to African
American Baby Names. New York, NY: Signet, 1998.
 Tibón, Gutierre. Diccionario etimológico de los apellidos
españoles. Mexico City, Mexico: Editorial Diana, 1988.
 Woods, Richard. Hispanic First Names: A Comprehensive
Dictionary of 250 Years of Mexican-American Usage. 22
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984.
 On-Line Sources
There are thousands of surname websites involving
hundreds of languages. For example:
 Spanish surnames (in Spanish)
 http://www.heraldaria.com/apellidos.php

 Native American surnames (North & South America):

 http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/ame.php

 Chinese surname meanings:

 http://www.yutopian.com/names/

 Hindi surname meanings:

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 http://www.indianhindunames.com/indian-surnames-
origin-meaning.htm
Surnames and Content Subjects
 Surnames can also play a role in the study of math,
science and social studies, especially as eponyms.
 Consider the following:
 Pythagorean Theorem
 Möbius Strip
 Monroe Doctrine

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 Eponyms
 Names of real or imaginary persons after whom something
(such as an object, organism, concept, place, era or
discovery) is named.
 Eponyms are excellent subjects for independent study; they
add a human dimension to abstract concepts.
 Miranda Rights
 Ernesto Miranda (laborer)

 The Álvarez Hypothesis

 Luis (physicist) and Walter (geologist) Álvarez 25
 Class Names in Translation
 Carlos Ovando = Charles Blackthorne
 Marco Bueno = Mark Goode
 Amanda Murray = Amanda VillaDelmar
 Enrique Rivera = Henry Rivers
 Karli Smith = Carolina Herrera
 Charity Holm = Caridad Encina
 Omar Ajanovic = Omar Johnson
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 Closure—Q & A
★★★
★★★
“A good name is better than all the world’s riches.”
--Miguel Cervantes

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“…in Spanish my name is made out of a softer something, like silver…”
--Sandra Cisneros

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