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The Origin of 5 Spanish
Female Personal Names
Virgen de Guadalupe
The Virgin appeared to Bishop Zumarraga in Mexico in the year 1531. Her image took shape on the tilma or robe of the indian Juan Diego as he was unfolding it to show the Bishop the roses the Virgen had sent as proof of her apparitions to him.
This is a list of the origins of five common names for females in Spanish. It is part of an unpublished book of Spanish Personal Names that nevertheless contains some fascinating word lore about names. I hope any who browse the list will agree. Here are the origins of the names Carmen, Citlalli, España, Guadalupe, and Macarena.
Carmen
Carmen. An early honorific name of Blessed Mary was la Virgen del Monte Carmelo. Saint Louis founded a Christian church and convent on Mount Carmel in Israel dedicated to Mary, who in Spain came to be referred to as Nuestra Señora del Carmen. This altering of Carmelo to Carmen is called attraction in linguistics. Carmelo was strange to Spanish ears, but Carmen was not. Carmen was the word used in ecclesiastical Latin to mean song or hymn. And karman was the Moorish (Arabic) word for 'villa with an orchard'. Note that Hebrew and Arabic are both Semitic languages. Mount Karmel in Hebrew means 'vine, vinyard or garden (kerem) of God' and the Arabic karm and karman show the same root and mean 'house with orchard or garden'. The vast popularity of Carmen as a Spanish first name was given a boost by Bizet's opera, Carmen (première, Paris, 1875). Spanish variants include Carmela and Carmina.
Carmenta
There is no doubt that the widespread popularity of Carmen as a feminine given name in the Romance languages and wherever in the world Spanish is spoken is also due to its familiarity as part of the name of a less well known but by no means minor Roman deity, namely, Carmenta or Carmentis, one of the Roman goddesses of childbirth.
As one of the Camenae, Carmenta also presided over certain forms of prophetic utterance. Next to the Porta Carmentalis in ancient Rome was her temple, the epicenter of her midwinter festival, the Carmentalia, celebrated by Roman matrons on January 11 and 15. Some ancient and modern commentators, not all of them reliable, say the root of her name may be associated with an even more ancient goddess Car.
Brazilian Carmen Miranda played the 1940s Hollywood stereotype of the ditzy Latina bombshell. Her high fruit-filled hats burdened not only her own comely brow but also all Latin American women with an unfair label for years, according to modern feminist theory.
Citlalli
Citlalli. The word for 'star' in Nahuatl used as a girl's name in Mexico. Nahuatl is a group of languages that includes the speech of the Aztec peoples of Mexico and Central America.
España
España. The Spanish word for Spain is used as a girl's name. Many bizarre and unsupported etymologies have been suggested for the origin of the name of the country. In Latin, Hispania, in Greek Spania and Hispania. One bit of onomastic fancy says Spain means 'land of rabbits' from an unrecorded Punic root *span related to an obscure Hebrew word for marmot, shaphan! There is not one iota of textual or historical proof for this supposititious flummery based on manic dictionary riffling instead of comparative etymology with historical support. Punic was the Semitic language of ancient Carthage, closely related to Phoenician. And the Carthaginians did found colonies in what is today southern Spain.
Roman coin minted in Spain under the emperor Galba in 68 A.D. showing Hispania holding spears and shield of victory. But there is no rabbit to accompany Hispania.
The furry bunny story is certainly a very old bit of etymological hooey, for we have on a Roman coin of the emperor Hadrian a representation of Spain consisting of a seated matron with a rabbit beside her feet. One coin however does not constitute a Punic dictionary, which we do not possess. What we do have, according to the British etymologist Eric Partridge in his book Origins, is the pre-Roman name for the town of Seville, Hispalis, which strongly hints of a very ancient name for the country of *Hispa, an Iberian or Celtic root whose meaning is now lost. Sometimes in etymology one must simply admit: we don't know what the word Spain means.
Guadalupe
Guadalupe. A river in the Spanish region of Extremadura was named by the Moors in Arabic wad(i)-al-hub 'river of love', due to the reputedly aphrodisiac qualities of its water. This river gave its name to the original sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe which contains a portrait of the Madonna as a woman with dark, Spanish features, nicknamed La Morenita 'the little Moorish woman', the patron saint of the Spanish world. The Spanish town of Guadalupe in Cáceres province is still a centre of pilgrimage.
Copyright (c) 1999 Icon Arts
Columbus' Spanish sailors and clerics introduced this cult into the New World. The miracle of La Virgen de Guadalupe occurred in 1531 on the outskirts of Mexico City when an apparition of Mary appeared to an Indian man and told him to tell the local archbishop to build a church nearby. According to the legend, the archbishop refused to believe the man until a wondrous image of Mary appeared on the tilma or mantle of the peasant. The portrait shows Mary as a dark-skinned, indigenous woman.
Interestingly the apparition appeared at the foot of Tepeyac Hill where Aztec peoples worshipped a goddess named Tonantzin 'mother of God'. The portrait of Mary bears a resemblance to ancient depictions of Tonantzin, and its promotion by Roman Catholic authorities did much to hasten the conversion of local Indian peoples.
The mantle today is the focus of the most famous religious shrine in Mexico, and the Virgin of Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico. Guadalupe is naturally one of the frequent names for girls in Mexico. The diminutives and pet forms are also much used as given names: Gualupita, Lupita, Pita, and Lupe.
Macarena
Macarena. La Macarena is a name of the Virgin Mary in the Spanish city of Seville, and a district of the city so named from its connection with the 3rd century Sevillian martyr, San Macario, whose name derives from the frequent Greek given name Makarios 'fortunate, lucky.'
It is also the name of a modern popular dance that uses the name. The Macarena began in 1993 as a flamenco composed and released by the Spanish duo Los Del Rio, enjoying great popularity in Spain. Here are the lyrics of the song, in Spanish and their English translation.
Dale a tu cuerpo alegria, MacarenaGive your body pleasure, Macarena
Que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegria y cosa buena
Because your body is for giving it pleasure and good things
Dale a tu cuerpo alegria, Macarena
Give your body pleasure, Macarena
Ehhhh, Macarena
Macarena tiene un novio que se llama
Macarena has a boyfriend whose name is
Que se llama de apellido Vitorino
Whose last name is Vitorino
Y en la jura de bandera del muchacho
And during his military swearing in
Se la dio con dos amigos
She got together with two of his friends
Macarena, Macarena, Macarena
Que le gusta los veranos de Marbella
Who like the summers of Marbella
Macarena, Macarena, Macarena
Que le gusta la movida guerrilera
Who likes the guerrila lifestyle
Macarena suena con el Corte Ingles
Macarena dreams of the Corte Ingles (High-class dept. store)
Y se compra los modelos mas modernos
And she likes the most recent fashions
Le gustaria vivir en Nueva York
She'd like to live in New York
Y ligar un novio nuevo
And trap a new boyfriend.
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