Zavaleta (or Zabaleta) is a surname of Basque origin. The Basque are a people indigenous to areas of northern Spain and southern France, an historical region known as Basque Country.
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It is difficult to uncover the original meaning of a surname like Zavaleta because of its considerable antiquity. But many believe it to mean "the men who touched mountain tops".
The surname Zabaleta is created in the Basque language by combining the root, Zabal, with the suffix, eta, hence Zabal-eta. The surname Zabaleta was changed in the New World to the Spanish or Castellano variant, where the "b" is changed to a "v", hence Zavaleta. The two spellings are interchangeable and represent one single family worldwide. today, people who spell it Zavaleta are generally from the "New World" while Zabaleta's are in Spain or more recent from Spain in the America's.
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