Saenz

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Saenz coat of arms
Saenz coat of arms

Saenz (pronounced sigh-nz) is a Spanish surname originating from the Castile region of Spain, now known as La Rioja. 1

[edit] History

The name "Saenz" was a Spanish name from the Castilla La Vieja (now Rioja) region in Spain, being "Saenz" a modification of "Sancho" which is a modification of "Santo", which is a modification of the Italian form of the Late Latin name Sanctius meaning "he who walks with god or he who is a good Christian", which was derived from the word sanctus meaning "saintly, holy" ("Saint" in Latin).

The first person to use "Saenz" as a name is believed to be Fortun Saenz de Vera, a crusader who, acting on behalf of King James I of Aragon (1208 - 1276), was present on their campaigns of "Reconquista", fighting at Valencia, Balearic Islands, Murcia, etc. 2

It is believed that Semitic families who immigrated into the region via the Way of St. James due to religious conflicts in their native lands may have used this name as a way of assimilating into their new country of settlement.

Integrating with Spain's native people, the name became common in this territory. These families, and those like them, were known as Conversos or Sephardi. Later in 1478, due to the Alhambra Decree, many Saenz family members that retained forms of Judaism or Muslim faiths were forced to migrate to new lands.

Several Spanish Jews living in Spain, so-called Conversos, changed their faith to Christianity to avoid being killed by Christians for having their original faith be Judaism. These Jews were forced to adopt Spanish names to live in Spain after conversion, using Spanish names to "prove" to authorities that their conversion was "true". 3

This was common place in dark-age times, both in Spain and Portugal, where Jews adopted tree names in Portuguese, like "Oliveira" ( olive tree ), "Pereira" ( pear tree ), "Salgueiro" ( willow tree), "Figueira" ( fig tree ), etc. In Portugal, these Jews were called "Cristãos-Novos" ( new Christians ). The Saenz coat of arms denotes a tree in line with this Jewish aspect, as well as two similar fruits on either side of the tree and opposing lions on the latter half of the shield, depicting a duality involved in the root of the name.

During the Spanish conquest of Mexico several Saenz members migrated over to New Spain, which later became Mexico and the United States of America. This was genetically proven when Bennett Greenspan, the President of Family Tree DNA Inc., had this to say regarding a DNA research project on Mexican families:

   
Saenz
 One item for you to be aware of... If you are testing male members of the founding families of Mexico, especially the founding families of Northern Mexico, you will probably see a strong percent of Semitic DNA evidence from Crypto Jews who were among the Spanish conquerors of Mexico from the 1500s. We have clearly seen these foot steps in the testing we have done to date.4
   
Saenz

Not all Saenz families, however, are from Jewish origin, being a genealogical research or a DNA test good tools to be sure. This happens because, being a widespread family name in Spain, not all Saenz families are related to each other today.

Today a large number of Saenz families still reside in Spain and throughout Europe. In North America many reside in the northern part of Mexico (central to Nuevo León 5) while American Saenz families take greatest percentage in the state of Texas. 6 This is most probably because much of the state was once part of New Spain/Mexico. In fact, in the state of Texas a Saenz family gained prominence for ranching and the town site of Roma-Los Saenz was established. The Americas and Europe are where the majority Saenz families exist today.

[edit] Saenz of note

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/a/e/Saenz.html"