One element of the Reformation rejected by the Roman Catholic church was making translations of Bibles in vernacular languages available to parishioners. In Spain, owning a Bible was used as evidence a person was Jewish. The Inquisition made even references to the Jewish Old Testament suspect.
Between 1733 and 1759, 50% of the 1909 children baptized in Santa Cruz had New Testament names, but only less than 1% came for the older section. In one of my grandparent’s families living in Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maine in those years, 62% of the 149 children had names taken from the Old Testament and 28% from the new.
| Source | Santa Cruz | New England |
| Old Testament | * | 62% |
| New Testament | 50% | 28% |
| Founder | 24% | |
| Healer | 8% | |
| Golden Legend | 7% | 3% |
| Mystic | 3% | |
| Spanish Saint | 2% | |
| Attribute | 1% | 1% |
| Other Saint | 3% | |
| Other | 2% | 6% |
| Total | 100% | 100% |
In Santa Cruz, the two Benitos alluded to Benjamin, founder of one of the twelve tribes of Israel in Genesis. The one Susana had a name that appeared in Daniel. In contrast, in New England where the Bible was readily available, names came primarily from Genesis, Kings, Chronicles, and Samuel.
The most common New Testament name in both areas came from the four Gospels. In Santa Cruz, there were 305 girls baptized with María as a first or second name. In my family, 11 were called Mary. One wonders, with nearly a third of the 948 girls given the same name, what they were called informally to differentiate them. One of the New England Marys was known as Molly.
Juan, after one of the apostles, was the second most common name for boys in Santa Cruz, and also used as Juana for girls. Joseph was the third most popular male name. Josepha was the female counterpart. José didn’t appear. John was given to five boys in New England. I suspect the six named Joseph were for the patriarch sold into slavery in Genesis.
Many of the other New Testament names used in Santa Cruz appeared in all four gospels. However Juan and Santiago did not appear in John and Joana was found only in Luke. Manuel from Emmanuel and Juan Baptista came from Matthew, the book most famously consulted by Francis of Assisi.
The local names that came from other books of the New Testament were Pablo and Paula from Acts, and Manuel, Manuela, Miguel and variants of Michaela from Revelations. In New England, Acts and Timothy were the other sources.
While English Calvinists drew their views on the human condition from the unpredictable Yahweh of the Old Testament, Spanish Catholics were given the church as exemplar for lives dedicated to perpetuating its patrimony. The lives of saints in the Flos Sanctorum was the accepted source for information about both Him and his guardians.
Anna and Joachin or Joachina, the names of Mary’s parents, came from that source, as did another 87 names used in Santa Cruz. The most popular were Lorenzo/Lorenza, Nicholas/Nicolosa, Patricio, and Dorotea. As discussed in the post for 24 April 2016, the English translation of Golden Legend also was widely read. My family named girls Anna, Lucia, and Dorothy.
Most of the remaining names used in Santa Cruz, some 47% came from saints and church fathers. Children were symbolically dedicated to the continuation of the institution. Franciscan fathers Antonio and Francisco ranked first and fourth among male names, and second and tenth among female. Ignacio and Ignacia acknowledged the progenitor of the Jesuits, and Gertrudis the champion of the Sacred Heart. Luis, with the female Luisa, was patron of the secular third order of the Franciscans.
Some of the saints recognized in Santa Cruz were unique to Spain. Many editions of Flos Sanctorum had been expanded with biographies of local heroes and heroines. The most common in Santa Cruz were Ramon or Reymundo, Quiteria, and Visente. Ones beatified in the New World included Aparicio, Beltran and Toribio. The names of mystics were only given to girls: the Benedictine Lugarda, the Augustinian Rita, and the Carmelite Teresa of Ávala.
One other naming habit shared by parents in both Santa Cruz and New England was the use of Christian virtues. Here they applied attributes to María and named girls Angela, Ascension or Prudencia. Boys were called Atanacio, literally meaning without death, and Ynociencio. My family used Mercy and Patience.
| Girls' Names | Number | Source |
| Maria | 305 | NT - mother of Jesus |
| Antonia | 99 | Founder - Franciscans |
| Joana | 41 | NT Luke - healed by Christ |
| Manuela | 37 | |
| Juana | 34 | |
| Barbara | 32 | Holy helper |
| Josepha | 32 | |
| Anna | 23 | James - mother of Mary |
| Gertrudis | 22 | Mystic - Sacred Heart |
| Francisca | 19 | |
| Rosa/Rosalia | 33 | Healer |
| Teresa | 15 | Spanish mystic |
| Margarita | 14 | Holy helper |
| Isabel | 13 | Founder - Poor Clares |
| Micaela/Micalina/Mica | 15 | |
| Juliana | 12 | |
| Ignacia | 11 | |
| Lugarda | 11 | Mystic - Benedictine |
| Luisa | 10 | |
| Rita | 10 | Mystic - Augustinian |
| Boys' Names | ||
| Antonio | 179 | Founder - Franciscans |
| Juan | 129 | NT - apostle |
| Joseph | 115 | NT - father of Jesus |
| Francisco | 44 | Founder - Franciscans |
| Manuel | 37 | NT Matthew |
| Miguel | 34 | NT Revelations |
| Cristobal | 25 | Healer |
| Pedro | 25 | NT - apostle |
| Domingo | 20 | Founder - Domincans |
| Julian | 18 | Healer |
| Felipe | 17 | NT - apostle |
| Santiago | 17 | NT - apostle |
| Salvador | 15 | NT - attribute of Christ |
| Ignacio | 14 | Founder - Jesuits |
| Luis | 11 | Founder - Franciscans |
| Pablo | 11 | NT Acts - apostle |
| Andres | 10 | NT - apostle |
| Gregorio | 10 | Other - pope |
| Joachin | 10 | James - father of Mary |
| Juan Bapitsta | 10 | NT Matthew - baptized Christ |
Female names without sources appear in the list of male names
Notes:
Santa Cruz data from New Mexico Genealogical Society, New Mexico Baptisms, Santa Cruz de la Cañada Church, Volume I, 1710 to 1794, transcribed by Virginia Langham Olmstead and compiled by Margaret Leonard Windham and Evelyn Luján Baca, 1994.
The sacramental register has a number of missing pages, so the total is an undercount. The total also does not include Spanish-speakers living near San Juan or Santa Clara who baptized their children in one of those missions. Those omissions would have affected the demographic statistics, but probably wouldn’t have altered conclusions regarding naming patterns.
My grandparent’s immigrant ancestor William and his wife arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony before 1637 with their four children, William, Thomas, Sarah, and John. Their great-grandchildren, the fourth generation, born between 1733 and 1760 were the ones used for the statistics for comparative New England naming patterns.
The family’s only atypical characteristic was that William was not a Puritan. His children, who had common English names, adopted Calvinist ones for their children, the third generation, and most probably affiliated with the church.
Quotations from Jonathan Edwards in the post for 24 April 2016 gives an idea of the Puritan concept of God.
The Flos Sanctorum, or Golden Legend, was discussed in the post for 1 May 2016.
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