Concept in Definition ABC

On Latin America the masculine form of this word is used, while in Spain it is used in feminine. Onomastic or onomastic is the term used to refer to the celebration of the saint that gives the name to a person. Everyone whose name is José celebrates his birthday on March 19 and if someone's name is Francisco Javier, they celebrate it on December 3.

It should be noted that this celebration is related to the name of a person and not to his birthday. However, in the Catholic world people received their names depending on the saints of the day, so they celebrated their birthday and birthday on the same day.

The catholic saints and names

In the first centuries of Christianity, martyrs and saints were already honored at Mass and this was done during the canon of the Mass. With the passage of time, a list of all the men and women considered saints was formed and this list is the saints. The Catholic saints became the reference to put the name of each person.

This custom is still maintained in some places, but it is very minority. In the

present The vast majority of Catholics do not use the saints to choose the name of their children, but this choice depends exclusively on personal tastes.

We recall, on the other hand, that for many years in Spain (especially in the Franco period) it was not possible to put a name that was not included in the Catholic saints.

The study of names and surnames

The name day is the discipline that studies the origin of names and surnames. Formerly people only knew each other by their names and this circumstance can be observed in the Bible, where all characters mentioned bear a name but not accompanied by a surname. It was from the Middle Ages when the last name was incorporated for identify to the people.

One of the initial references in the first surnames had a relationship with the geographical origin of someone (Juan del Rio or Rafael del Valley), with some element architectural associated with a person (for example, the surnames Torres, Castillo or Puente) or with someone's physical appearance (for example, the surnames Calvo, Delgado, Rubio, etc).

On the other hand, all surnames that end in ez express the idea of ​​being someone's son (Perez is the son of Pedro, Rodriguez de Rodrigo, Gonzalez de Gonzalo ...). The job of the people was also a factor to surname someone and from there come the surnames Herrero, Panadero, Servant or Monje.

Photos: Fotolia - vvoe / milleflore

Themes in Nameday