Nobiliary particle

A nobiliary particle is used in a family name or surname in many Western cultures to signal the nobility of a family. The particle used varies depending on the country, language and period of time. This article is dedicated to explain how noble families of different countries identify themselves by using a nobiliary particle. However, in some languages the nobiliary particle is the same as a regular prepositional particle that was used in the creation of many surnames. In some countries it became customary to distinguish the nobiliary particle from the regular one by different spelling, although in other countries these conventions did not arise, occasionally resulting in ambiguity.

France

In France, the particle de precedes a nom de terre ("name of land") in many families of the French nobility (for example, Maximilien de Béthune).^[1] A few do not have this particle (for example, Pierre Séguier, Lord Chancellor of France). The particle can also be du ("of the" in the masculine form), d' (employed, in accordance with the rules of orthography, when the nom de terre begins with a vowel; for example, Ferdinand d'Orléans), or des ("of the" in the plural). In French, de indicates a link between the land and a person—either landlord or peasant.

Never in French history was this particle proof of nobility. The nobleman was always designated an escuyer (dapifer in Latin, for "squire") or, better, a chevalier (miles in Latin, for "knight"). Only knights could be designated by the spoken style monseigneur or messire (dominus in Latin, for "sir"), as, for example, "monseigneur Bertrand du Guesclin, chevalier" (in English form, "Sir Bertrand du Guesclin, knight").

So, in fact and by convention, surnames with the nonnoble use of the particle de are spelled as a single word (e.g. "Pierre Dupont").,^[2] though many such conserved the de as a separate word.

From the sixteenth century, surnames among the French nobility have often been composed of a combination of patronymic names, titles, or noms de terres ("names of lands" or estates) joined by the preposition de, as in "Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord".^[3] The use of this particle began to be an essential appearance of nobility. But, after the end of the kingdom of France, the use of de has not invariably evidenced nobility, as shown in Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's grandfather's change of name in the early twentieth century.^[4] Even earlier in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries many middle-class families simply adopted the particle without being ennobled; Maximilien Robespierre's family, for example, used the particle for some generations.^[5][6]

Spain

In Spain, the nobiliary particle de is also used in two different styles. The first is a "patronymic-de-toponymic" formula,^[7] as used by, among others, the fifteenth-century general Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, the fourteenth-century chronicler and poet Pero López de Ayala, the European discoverer of the eastern Pacific, Vasco Núñez de Balboa, and many other conquistadores.^[8] The second style is use of the particle de before the entire surname. This style resembles but is more ambiguous than the French one, since there is no convention for a different spelling when the de is simply a prepositional particle in non-noble toponymic names such as De la Rúa (literally, "of the street") or De la Torre ("of the tower"). Examples of nobility particle de without patronymic include the sixteenth-century first Marquis of Santa Cruz, Álvaro de Bazán, the conquistador Hernando de Soto, and the styling of the king of Spain as Juan Carlos de Borbón, a common tradition in Spanish culture. Unlike French, Spanish lacks elision, and so no contraction is used when the surname starts with a vowel (though exceptionally we find Pedro Arias Dávila), but contraction is used when the surname includes the article "el" as in Baltasar del Alcázar.

A Spanish law on names, from 1958 and still in force, does not allow a person to add a de to their surname if it does not already have it. The law does allow for one exception. A de may be added in front of a surname that could be otherwise misunderstood as a forename.^[9] Conclusive proof of the nobility of a surname can be determined by establishing whether that surname is associated with a blazon, since for centuries coats of arms have been borne legally only by a persons of noble condition.^[10]

Surnames composed of two names linked by a hyphen ("-"), implying that equal importance is given to both families, do not indicate nobility. For example, the hyphenated surname Suárez-Llanos does not indicate nobility.

Germany and Austria

In Germany and Austria, von or zu generally precedes the surname of a noble family, with a meaning identical to de in French or Spanish (in, for example, the names of Alexander von Humboldt and Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim). Occasionally, they are even used together ("von und zu"): the present ruler of Liechtenstein, for example, is Johannes Adam Ferdinand Alois Josef Maria Marko d'Aviano Pius von und zu Liechtenstein.

As in France and Spain, not all noble families use a nobiliary particle. The most ancient nobility, the Uradel, are especially apt to omit its use. Conversely, the prefix von occurs, though rarely, in the names of some non-noble families, much like van in The Netherlands.

England and Wales

In the Middle Ages, the nobiliary particles de, borrowed from French, and of often were used in England and Wales by, among many others, Simon de Montfort and Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, as well as the de Houghton, de Ros and de Mowbray families.

In modern times, a nobiliary particle (as the term is widely understood on the Continent) is rarely used. More usual is the territorial designation, which in practice is almost identical.

Scotland

In Scotland, the nobiliary particle is referred to as a territorial designation, namely the inclusion of an "of" and a place name following on from a family surname, e.g. in the form Aeneas MacDonell of Glengarry. Recognition of a Territorial Designation is granted in Scotland by the Lord Lyon to Scottish armigers who own (or were born in or were associated with) named land, generally outwith a town (i.e. rural). The Lord Lyon advises that for a territorial designation to be recognised, there must be 'ownership of a substantial area of land to which a well-attested name attaches, that is to say, ownership of an “estate”, or farm or, at the very least, a house with policies extending to five acres or thereby'.^[11] The Territorial Designation in this case is considered to be an indivisible part of the name, and does not necessarily indicate historical feudal nobility. Typically but not necessarily, a person bearing a Scottish territorial designation is either a Chief or Chieftain or a Laird, the latter denoting 'landowner', or is a descendant of one of the same.^[12][13] The Lord Lyon is the ultimate arbiter as to determining entitlement to a territorial designation, and his right of discretion in recognising these, and their status as a name, dignity or title, have been confirmed in the Scottish courts.^[14]

Switzerland

In Switzerland, de or von precedes a noble name, depending on the canton of origin.

Portugal

In Portugal there are not, and never were, any special naming conventions to show nobility. Personal titles like Dom (and its female variant Dona) may be used by the clergy, for instance, before their Christian name, not implying nobility, except if one previously knows the name as belong to a private civilian.

Furthermore, Portuguese nobility is traditionally recognised just to people being born to four noble quarters: both grandfathers and both grandmothers must have been noble for their grandson or granddaughter to be considered a noble at birth, independently of any noble name, with or without particle.

Portuguese surnames do not indicate nobility, as usually the same surnames exist in noble and non-noble families. The restriction to nobility and the clergy of bearing arms at the beginning of the 16th century, when king Manuel I extinguished the previous bourgeoisie armorial, usually shows someone to be noble if he or she bears personal or family arms. But nobility in Portugal was never restricted to the bearers of arms, and many Portuguese nobles did not or do not have arms at all: in fact, to be a noble in Portugal, it was enough to have a University bachelor degree.

The articles de, and its different orthographic forms (do, dos, da and das), like in France, do not indicate nobility in the bearer. Portuguese modern law recognises to any citizen the right not to sign those articles, even if they are present in their identification documents, and the opposite right is legally allowed to those Portuguese citizens who, not having in their documentation any such prepositions, are able to sign it if they wish. In fact, articles and prepositions are considered in Portuguese nomenclature just as an embellishment to any name.

Good taste made usually Portuguese nobility reduce prepositions linking their many surnames, signing just one at the beginning of the name, and then the last surname being preceded by e (and), not to repeat the preposition. For instance, the name João Duarte da Silva dos Santos da Costa de Sousa may also legally be signed João Duarte Silva Santos Costa Sousa. Tradition and good taste should make him sign just João Duarte da Silva Santos Costa e Sousa. The last "and" (e) substitutes all previous surnames' prepositions except the first one, and cannot ever be used withouth a previous preposition to justify it. An exception to this rule is only shown with duplicate surnames linked by and (e), for instance when the maternal surnames come before the paternal ones: Diogo Afonso da Conceição e Silva (name and mother's duplicate surname)Tavares da Costa (paternal duplicate surname).

From the 19th century on, it become customary for Portuguese titled nobility to socially indicate their title as a subsidiary surname: for instance, Joaquim Diniz Tavares dos Santos e Silva (Paço do Lumiar). This social rule does not apply to members of the Portuguese royal house.

Other countries

Although many languages have nobiliary particles, their use in some countries may mislead as it does not always evidence nobility. Some examples are:

• Latin America:

1. Brazil continued to recognize the distinction of nobility longer than its republican neighbors (Brazilian nobility), since it remained a monarchy until 1889, but it has also been a republic ever since. Nobility in Brazil took the special Portuguese ways, with the only distinction that in the Brazilian Empire titles and simple nobility were conferred only on a personal basis, and were not legally able to be transmitted to their offspring, unlike Portugal. In fact, differently from colonial nobility, the Brazilian Empire nobility was awarded as a private and personal condecoration for one lifetime, even if some of the Brazilian titles, in some very rare cases, were again conferred to one or two more generations.
2. Spanish-speaking countries other than Spain use the particle de without legally meaning nobility. With only a few short-lived exceptions, all Spanish American countries adopted a republican form of government and abolished noble distinctions (but see the article on the Mexican nobility). Laws on names vary in Latin America but occasionally people are able to fashion new surnames that may sound noble: an example is Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, whose father, Ricardo Pérez de Cuéllar, decided to permanently combine his last names as a more distinguishable paternal last name for his offspring.

• Italy: The nobiliary particles (or predicati) de or di are used after the surname or the name of the title. Di is sometimes contracted when the surname begins with a vowel, in accordance with Italian orthography. An example of nobility is the name of the noted writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, where Tomasi is the surname and Lampedusa was the family's feudal property. An ordinary use is found in the name of the American actor Leonardo DiCaprio, of Italian descent (his surname is spelt as a single word, in accordance with standard English practice). However, the surnames of certain Italian noble families are by their nature toponymic, reflecting the names of medieval feudal properties, e.g. di Savoia, d'Aquino, di Medici.

• Netherlands: The particle Van is not an indicator of nobility: the percentage of Van-preceded surnames that are noble is not significantly higher than that of any other surname; they are evenly spread over the social strata. However, the particles tot and thoe, historically meaning "at" and related to German zu, are a strong indicator of nobility if combined with van in a surname, such as van Voorst tot Voorst (the prepositions tot and thoe were once used to denote the place of residence of a lord, whereas van referred to the domain whence he derived his title). Note that many noble families in the Netherlands have non-noble branches that are closely related and share the same surname. Double surnames are, therefore, a weak but significant indicator of nobility; many patrician and other families have double names as well.

• Belgium: The nobiliary particle is de or van. As in the Netherlands, use of a nobiliary particle is not conclusive evidence of nobility.

• Sweden: Some noble families use 'af' as a nobiliary particle. This is the pre-1906 spelling of modern Swedish 'av' ("of"), and corresponds to German von. von has also been used in some noble families, either of German or of Swedish origin. Thus Carl Linnaeus upon his ennoblement took the family name von Linné. af and von do not have to be used with a toponym; it can simply be attached to the pre-noble surname. de has also been used in some families with connections to the 17th immigration of craftsmen and industrialists from Wallonia in present-day Belgium. A well-known example is the De Geer family; other examples include Du Rietz and De Besche.

• Finland: the old Swedish form 'af' or the German 'von', denoting descent or location, is used in some noble families.

Furthermore, in lowland Scotland, a Laird, would be known by the name of his estate, rather than his surname, thus removing the Nobiliary particle altogether, e.g. William Maitland of Lethington.

Thailand

Thai language na (of Pali origin,) may be granted by a Thai monarch to form a Thai family name signifying of a former kingdom or tributary state of Siam.^[15] Examples:

• House of na Champassak
• House of Chiang Mai
• House of Songkhla
• House of Sundarakul na Jolburi, an exception to royal lineage in a former kingdom
• Na Ayudhya, putative royal lineage in the Ayutthaya Kingdom that may be granted after marriage into the royal house of Chakri
• Thammarak Isaragura na Ayuthaya, formerly na Krungthep

See also

• Immemorial nobility
• Royal and noble ranks
• Spanish naming customs
• Io, Romanian royal particle
• Territorial designation

References

External links

• "Bibliography of works on European Onomastics". Modern British Surnames: A Resource Guide. 2008. http://homepages.newnet.co.uk/dance/webpjd/intro/europe.htm. 
• "Archive of the Royal Chancery of Valladolid: databases". Archive of the Royal Chancery of Valladolid. 2009. http://en.www.mcu.es/archivos/MC/ACV/BaseDatos.html.