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Archiver > CUBA > 2002-03 > 1014996518


From:
Subject: Re: [CUBA-L] Baby Names (from saints), BY THE WAY,,,,,
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 10:28:39 EST


Hilda ~ your message about many of the first names that sound 'unusual' to
our ears because they are Visigothic in origin (making them Gothic rather
than Latin) is fascinating. Do you have any more information about what
happened here?

I am particularly interested in this as we have known for some time now that
our surname, Vigil, is not proper Spanish. The Spanish translation of the
root Latin word would be more like Vigila. And indeed in fact there are
ancient Vigila in northern Spain. Somewhere along the way the spelling was
changed to Vigil and this has stuck since. The theory, and it is only that,
is the spelling was changed to honor the first Visigoth King of all of Spain
that tried to unify the country by declaring that his heir to the throne was
to be a Catholic. His name was Leovigildo. This is a Spanish version of
Leovigild which in turn stands for Leo (lion) the vigilant. But, this is the
first evidence of the influence of the Visigoths on the resident Spanish
populations in the North that I know about. Hence I seek other information
on this issue.
Thank you,
Mike Vigil

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