García Is Mallorcan

You might think that García is not a Mallorcan name. Strictly speaking, it isn't even a Spanish name. It was first recorded in the region of Lower Navarre which lies over the border in France and which historically forms part of the French Basque Country. García, for Spanish purposes, has come to be acknowledged as being of Basque origin, but having cropped up for the first time in the late eighth century the name spread rapidly and widely - to Castille and León, to Aragon and eventually right across the regions of Iberia.

The proliferation of the García surname puts it on a par with a British Smith. But whereas Smith comes from an Old English word smitan, meaning to strike, as in, for example, a blacksmith, García is not derived from labour or occupation; its origin is believed to be from a Basque adjective meaning youthful (or, in Spanish terms, the word "joven" which has a wider application than referring solely to youth).

Nowadays, there are more Spaniards with the surname García than any other (bearing in mind that Spaniards have two surnames). It is the most common name in numerous regions of Spain, beating by some distance other common surnames - Fernández, Martínez, Rodríguez - and there are more Garcías in the Balearics than anyone else.

The names of García and of others noted above have an essentially Spanish feel to them; indeed, they are considered to be Castellano surnames. As such, it seems slightly odd that García should be as prevalent as it is in Mallorca and the Balearics, given the islands' historic links with Aragon and Catalonia.

But as also noted above, the name García was widely and quickly diffused across Spain, and when King Jaume I invaded Mallorca in the thirteenth century, one of his most trusted aides was one Sancho García. He was granted a great deal of Mallorcan land by Jaume, and with the land came a lineage; the name García in Mallorca is as old as the introduction of Catalan. Though García was originally Basque, it came to be identifiably Spanish, and so Mallorca was, by surname alone, subject to a process of Spanishisation as long ago as 1229. García, though it might not sound it, is very much a Mallorcan name.

The Balearics statistics institute issues annually a report on surnames. Its latest shows that García dominates in nine municipalities - Alcúdia is one, Palma and Calvià are others. One interesting aspect of this report is that it also shows the extent to which certain surnames are particularly prevalent in specific towns. For example, the name of the Balearic president, Bauzá, is shared by almost 11% of the population of the town of Sant Joan. Not that Bauzá comes from Sant Joan; he was in fact born in Madrid, which may explain a lot, and his second surname is Díaz, another essentially Castellano surname.

Bauzá is, along with the likes of Pons, Riera and Barceló, one of the Mallorcan surnames that is most encountered across Mallorca. But what is meant by a Mallorcan surname? This is not an idle question. Like the whole Catalan argument, surnames form part of a linguistic and political battle, one designed to demonstrate Catalan roots or not. 

One view of Mallorca's relationship with Catalan seeks to distance the island from Catalonia. Accordingly, the onomastic argument has it that, unlike the roots of surnames in Catalonia, which are said to be 70% of Germanic origin, almost a half of the Balearic names are a mix of Hebrew, Latin, Greek and other sources. The rest date from the old Kingdom of Mallorca.

The implication of this is that there are surnames which are unique to the islands, many of them in fact. The reference to the Kingdom of Mallorca is pertinent as the separate-development argument disputes the involvement of Catalonia in this kingdom; it was, after all, the legacy of the Aragonese king Jaume.

It is an arcane argument to say the least, but being somewhat obscure doesn't make it any less interesting. But it is an argument that runs up against the Castellano element, as with García. It is said that a unique Balearic surname is Garcías, which may be the case, but it had to have been derived from García, a surname which is prevalent only partly as a result of immigration as it was a name inherently associated with Jaume and ultimately therefore the Kingdom of Mallorca.

García undermines arguments of those who would either aver that Balearic surnames owe everything to Catalan or have followed a path of development separate to Catalan. García is a Spanish name. It is also a Mallorcan name and every bit as much as Bauzá is.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.