Surnames in La Pola (Siero, Asturies)

Abstract

This paper has its origin in the PatRom Project, a pan-Romance anthroponymy research project. The paper presents a study and classification of the surnames collected in the Asturian town of La Pola (Siero) and adds to other investigations, done or to be done, dealing with surnames in Asturian towns. All the ways to identify people, other than the official given name, are studied; the classification is done following the criteria of the mentioned pan-Romance anthroponymy research project, that is, the surnames collected are analyzed and classified into three big groups: detoponymic, anthroponymic and delexical. The study is carried out mainly considering the syntactic structure of the surnames, although when necessary, other aspects are also taken into account; the reasons behind the surnames are very often unknown, so the paper does not usually address them
(however, those reasons are sometimes very important for a correct classification).
The section devoted to detoponymic surnames includes those derived from the place
of origin (the name of that place or its demonym). The second section analyzes anthroponymic surnames, that is, those which relate the bearer of the surname to another member of the family, generally a close relative. The third part comprises delexical surnames, what we call nicknames, which are derived from lexical items. They have a descriptive character, as opposed to the associative nature of detoponymic and anthroponymic surnames. Although the structure of these delexical surnames is analyzed, they are organized in semantic fields: occupations, physical or psychical characteristics, animals, etc. Finally, there is a last group of family surnames, which are very common in La Pola. The paper ends with a list of all the surnames collected in this town.