Garcia and Rodriguez now on top 10 list

[Marshal Murat]

Garcia and Rodriguez have achieved #8 and #9 on the list of Top 10 most common names.

That's not what I'm complaining about.

NY Times article.

Luis Padilla, 48, a banker who has lived in Miami since he arrived from Colombia 14 years ago, greeted the ascendance of Hispanic surnames enthusiastically.

“It shows we’re getting stronger,” Mr. Padilla said. “If there’s that many of us to outnumber the Anglo names, it’s a great thing.”

Reinaldo M. Valdes, a board member of the Miami-based Spanish American League Against Discrimination, said the milestone “gives the Hispanic community a standing within the social structure of the country.”

An additional 268 last names are common to 10,000 or more people.

Probably only in 3 states.

The first two were disturbing. The 2nd one seemed very hypocritical. It's the league against discrimination, but it identifies 'Hispanic community'. Isn't that discrimination against those with Garcia as a last name, but white?
It seems to reflect the 'us and them' argument, and I feel a little disturbed.

Thoughts?

[Boyar Son]

Ya think people with the same last names could be related?

[IrishArmenian]

Apparently, Mr. Garcia (and Mrs. for that matter) stole Lemur's title of 'Prolific Breeder.'

[lars573]

Apparently, Mr. Garcia (and Mrs. for that matter) stole Lemur's title of 'Prolific Breeder.'

Nah. Probably that Garcia was a moy popular name back in the day when patronyms were common.

[IrishArmenian]

Patronym means...

[lars573]

Your fathers name. It was a practice common in europe. You take your father name put son/dauther of in front of it (or in eastern europe after it) and bam your last name. A great many family names are of patronymic origin in Iberia and northern europe. In Spainish family names that end in -ez, -az, -is, and -oz have a good chance of being a patronym. In Wales it's Ap (pronounced Mab). But they were Anglicised into surnames. (ap Hywel becomes Howell/Powell) The Irish and Scots use Mac. The Norse countries tend to put son/sen for a boy, dottir for a girl. And all these morphed over the years into family names. The other origins are the profession your ancestors had when laws were passed forcing them to adopt one. Like my family name of Smith, and my mother maiden name of Tippet. Or where they were from.

Oddly enough my first name is "Son of Lawrence" , Lawson.

[HoreTore]

Here we use "sen" for a son, and "datter" for a daughter(though very uncommon). Dottir is islandic, and they still use it. "son" is Swedish.

We don't have last names based on professions here, we are named after places here instead(most commonly the name of the farm). Like my name, Løver, which is a modified version of the old family farm, Lauvær. Another common name in my town at least, is "Korsgård", which means "Cross-farm", after the black death, when the houses where people were inflicted put a red cross on their front door. I'm not sure if it was only those farms who were completely killed off who were named korsgård, or if it was those who just had a few deaths.

BTW, when did hispanics become non-white? Last time I checked, Spain was in europe...

[Boyar Son]

BTW, when did hispanics become non-white? Last time I checked, Spain was in europe...

Ya about that...

it seems to qualify for that you must be from central America or below and not speak english :P

I thought about that too, and I guess if you're not blonde (and not Italian) you must be hispanic (according to them).

And get this, a friend of mine who's whiter than me is still latin, and a Portogues descended girl gets to be hispanic too :P

pretty stupid those with no mixed indian race get to be latin :P

[lars573]

That's simple white to north americans means celtic/germanic protestant. But seriously, people of mostly european (I actually prefer saying European to white and African to black) decent in some latin american nations are a minority.

Some examples of ethnic make-up in latin america.

Mexico
Mestizo (European Meso-american mix) 60%
Meso-american or mostly Meso-american 30%
European 9%
Other 1%

Peru
Meso-American 45%, mestizo 37%, white 15%, black, Japanese, Chinese, and other 3%

Colombia
mestizo 58%, white 20%, mulatto (European and African ancestors) 14%, black 4%, mixed black-Amerindian 3%, Amerindian 1%

Where as in Argentina it's the opposite 97% European ancestry and 3% Meso-American. (although they might not make a distinction between white and mestizo) And since most of the illegals coming into the US are poor Mexicans that are probably Mestizo, to some they aren't "white."

[HoreTore]

Huh. I thought most of the native population in mexico was wiped out by the spanish, before being resettled...

But still, Garcia and Rodriguez are most definitely european/white names.

[lars573]

Well pretty much everyone in latin America has Spainish name. Well accept for those Chinese/Japanese Peruvians. And on the deaths front, the Aztec population in 1521 is estimated at 20 million. And another stat I found is that by 1595 18 million had died from European dieseases. That leaves ~2 million Mesomaericans in Mexico alone. So while there was mass depopulation of the Mesoamerican peoples, they had pretty high populations to start with. It's the most likely explaination of why Mestizo's are, in some latin maericna nations, such large ethnic groups. Lonely Spainsih men+native women=


EDIT: Also North America is where you're finding Native tribes going completely extinct due to european diseases. For example the native tribe that lived on the island of Newfoundland, the Beothuk's, were completely extinct in 1828. But that was due not only disease. But also the Beothuk's hosility to Europeans.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Your fathers name. It was a practice common in europe. You take your father name put son/dauther of in front of it (or in eastern europe after it) and bam your last name. A great many family names are of patronymic origin in Iberia and northern europe. In Spainish family names that end in -ez, -az, -is, and -oz have a good chance of being a patronym. In Wales it's Ap (pronounced Mab). But they were Anglicised into surnames. (ap Hywel becomes Howell/Powell) The Irish and Scots use Mac. The Norse countries tend to put son/sen for a boy, dottir for a girl. And all these morphed over the years into family names. The other origins are the profession your ancestors had when laws were passed forcing them to adopt one. Like my family name of Smith, and my mother maiden name of Tippet. Or where they were from.

Oddly enough my first name is "Son of Lawrence" , Lawson.

Hey hey hey the Irish use "McC" get it right!

Sorry as someone who has a "McC" in my middle and last name I am genetically required to seem outraged when someone mixes "McC" and "Mac" up, really I don't give a damn.

Lars: That sounds pretty accurate. With the smaller North American populations a disease would be more likely to wipe everyone out because even if someone survived there was a good chance there would be no one left to "restart civilization with." In South/Central America the populations would have been devestated but most likely capable of re-booting to some degree, and the Spanish conquerors were certainly willing to get involved. They didn't bring many women with them after all.

[IrishArmenian]

Kenshin, wouldn't that be just like adding 'Mc' to something that starts with a 'C?'

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Kenshin, wouldn't that be just like adding 'Mc' to something that starts with a 'C?'

Ummm I have no idea. I am a mere American mutt with a fair amount of Irish ancestry whose knowledge of Irish names basically ends at "McC" is Irish and "Mac" is Scottish.

Do the Irish also use "Mc" as a standard beginning to some last names? That would make my last name make even less sense from a pronunciation/logic standpoint though. It has lotsa consonants, and if Mc is a prefix then my last name is really odd. I'm going to wait for an Irishman on this one...

EDIT: I studied wiki for a minute and found that Mac is used in Ireland. Wow my world view had just fallen apart. Maybe my name and the names of every Irish person I know was butchered at Ellis Island or something?

[lars573]

Hey hey hey the Irish use "McC" get it right!

Sorry as someone who has a "McC" in my middle and last name I am genetically required to seem outraged when someone mixes "McC" and "Mac" up, really I don't give a damn.

From what I was reading Mc is the Anglisied form of Mac. And in different Irish dialects you'll find Mag or just M. And that O' is for grandson.

Lars: That sounds pretty accurate. With the smaller North American populations a disease would be more likely to wipe everyone out because even if someone survived there was a good chance there would be no one left to "restart civilization with." In South/Central America the populations would have been devestated but most likely capable of re-booting to some degree, and the Spanish conquerors were certainly willing to get involved. They didn't bring many women with them after all.

Yeah and North America saw much of the mass immigrations from Europe. Plus the French crown actively tried to stop the expansion of the Metis nation (same origin as the Mestizos and they called the native wifes settlers took "Fille de bois") in New France. They had to import women from France.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Do the Irish also use "Mc" as a standard beginning to some last names?

Aye, many Irish names start with a simple MC. For example, McHammer ('Can't Touch This...ta da da daa...').

And I believe many Irish names start with 'O' too: O'Donnel, O'Darling, O'Yes, O'Baby.





Which all reminds me of an Irish joke!!!

Err...Kukri once sternly warned me about telling Irish jokes here on the .Org. Kindly informing me that he's Irish. That another Moderater, Banquo, is Irish too, and many regular posters as well.

So I'll be sure tell it very slowly.


An Englishman, a Scotsman and an Irishman were without tickets for the opening ceremonies of the Olympics but hoped to be able to talk their way in at the gate. Security was very tight, however, and each of their attempts was met with a stern refusal.

While wandering around outside the stadium, the Englishman came upon construction site, which gave him an idea. Grabbing a length of scaffolding, he presented himself at the gate and said, "Johnson, the pole vault," and was admitted.

The Scotsman, overhearing this, went at once to search the site. When he came up with a sledge hammer, he presented himself at the gate and said, "McTavish, the hammer." He was also admitted.

The Irishman combed the site for an hour and was nearly ready to give up when he spotted his ticket in. Seizing a roll of barbed wire, he presented himself at the gate and announced, "O'Sullivan, fencing."

[Tribesman]

Uesugi , don't even go into Irish surnames , it can get very complex .
Then again it can be useful for getting lots of different identity papers all in your name but somehow all in different names .

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Uesugi , don't even go into Irish surnames , it can get very complex .
Then again it can be useful for getting lots of different identity papers all in your name but somehow all in different names .

I imagine getting into American, aka butchered Irish last names would be even worse...

I don't remember exactly where the side of my family whose last name I have comes from except that they ran away from Canada due to murder charges sometime back in ancient history, but I've been led to believe the other side of my Irish family came down from Nova Scotia or Newfoundland in the form of a friend of some folk-hero up there, which makes us pretty unimportant to the "legends" and I don't even know what last name they had when they made the great trek to the Mecca of Irishmen everywhere, Boston.