Guzmán

Guzmán (IPA: [ɡusˈman] or IPA: [ɡuθˈman]) is a Spanish surname.

Origins

The surname is of toponymic origin, de Guzmán ("of Guzmán"), deriving from the village of Guzmán (es) in the region of Burgos. The earliest individual documented using this surname was Rodrigo Muñoz de Guzmán, who first appears in a document from 1134 and was the founder of the noble family of this name.[1][lower-alpha 1] In modern times the preposition has dropped from the original toponymic form, leaving simply Guzmán.

There has been some suggestion over the course of time, that the name derives from a Gothic male honorific meaning "good man" (gus man, guz man); compare the archaic English honorific "Goodman", and the German honorific "Guttmann", both of which also survived as surnames.

In the Philippines, Canada and America the name usually becomes Guzman, while the Portuguese form of the name is Gusmão.

People with this surname include:

Politics and government

Historical

Modern

Arts

Sports

Baseball

Soccer - Football

Miscellaneous

Journalism

Other people named Guzman

Given name

Individuals with Guzman as a given name include:

Places

Geographical features with this name include:

Literature

Other uses of Guzman

Notes

  1. Earlier writers on the name had suggested it was of more ancient, gothic origin. Alberto and Arturo García Carraffa in their Enciclopedia heráldica y genealógica hispano-americana (1919) believed the name to be germanic from "good man", while Julio de Atienza, in Nobiliario español: Diccionario heráldico de apellidos españoles y de títulos nobiliarios (1949), suggested that the Guzmans came from Germany and settled in Burgos in 950, and the name is a corruption of Gudemaro, the Spanish form of the name of a gothic king.[2] Neither provided evidence for their suggestions and the early examples of the name show its toponymic form, while their dating of the family's origin predates the use of surnames in Iberia by more than a century.

References

  1. Gonzalo Martínez Díez "Orígenes familiares de Santo Domingo, los linajes de Aza y Guzmán", in Luis Vicente Díez Martín and Cándido Aniz Iriarte, eds., Santo Domingo de Caleruega en sus contexto socio-político, 1170-1221. (Monumenta Histórica Iberoamericana de la Orden de Predicadores, 5) Jornadas de estudios medievales, Salamanca, 1994, págs. 173-228. Page 197 "No tenemos elementos para identificar con seguridad al Munio o Nuño, que fue el padre de nuestro don Rodrigo Muñoz o Núñez de Guzmán, primer caballero que usa el apelativo Guzmán."
  2. Donald Eugene Chipman Nuño de Guzmán y la provincia de Pánuco en Nueva España 2007 p 79
  3. Carroll B. Johnson Inside Guzmán de Alfarache 111 1978 p237 "In an analysis of the name "Guzmán de Alfarache" intended to demonstrate the good-evil dichotomy, Angel San ... The name "Guzmán," he suggests, derives from Germanic guter Mann and indicates righteousness, while "Alfarache," from ..."