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

See also: French nobility

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] but some do not have this particle de, for example: Pierre Séguier, Lord Chancellor of France. The particle can also be "du" (it means "of the" in the masculine form), or "des" (it means "of the" in the plural).

In French, de or d', when it appears also, in accordance with the rules of orthography, if the nom de terre begins with a vowel (e.g. "Ferdinand d'Orléans"), means the link between a person and a land, for the landlords or for the peasants.

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

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

Since the 16th century, surnames among the French nobility are often 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], and 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 does not, however, invariably evidence nobility, as shown in Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's grandfather's change of name in the early 20th century.^[4] Even earlier in the eighteenth and 19th 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

See also: Spanish nobility

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

See also: German nobility, von, and Austrian nobility

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"), such as with current ruler of 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 in the names of some non-noble families, much like van in The Netherlands.

England and Wales

See also: Peerage of England and Welsh peers

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.

In modern times, a nobiliary particle is rarely used.

Switzerland

See also: Swiss nobility

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 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 of do, dos, da, 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 particle di is used after the surname or the name of the title. Di is sometimes contracted when the surname begins with a vowel, in accordance to Italian orthography. An example of nobility is the name of the noted writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, where Tomasi is the surname. A nonnoble 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).

• 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.

See also

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

References

1. ^ "Nobility particle". Dictionary.com. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nobiliary+particle. Retrieved 12 May 2009. 
2. ^ "The French 'De.'". The New York Times: 22. October 24, 1897. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D02E4D91330E333A25757C2A9669D94669ED7CF. 
3. ^ Barthelemy, Tiphaine (June 2000). "Patronymic Names and Noms de terre in the French Nobility in the Eighteenth and the Nineteenth Centuries". History of the Family 5 (2): 181–197. doi:10.1016/S1081-602X(00)00041-5. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W4H-41C2V00-4&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=3cd5e110e2be4fdd708b2468eeb89867. 
4. ^ Despite the addition of "d'Estaing" to the family name by his grandfather, Giscard d'Estaing is not descended from the extinct noble family of the Comte d'Estaing. Giscard d'Estaing's grandfather adopted the "D'Estaing" name in 1922 because it had become extinct in his family (the grandfather was descended from another branch of the count's family through one of his great-great-grandmother – Lucie-Madeleine d'Estaing, dame de Réquistat – with two breaks in the male line). Though the lady Réquistat was the last to carry that surname in the grandfather's branch of the family, and so he successfully petitioned the government for the right to add it to his family name.
5. ^ Velde, François (June 18, 2008). Nobility and Titles in France. http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/noblesse.htm#particule. Retrieved 16 May 2009. 
6. ^ Lucas, Colin (August 1973). "Nobles, Bourgeois and the Origins of the French Revolution". Past & Present (Oxford University Press) 60: 90–91. 
7. ^ Cardenas y Allende, Francisco de; Escuela de genealogía, Heráldica y Nobiliaria (1984). Apuntes de nobiliaria y nociones de genealogía y heráldica: Primer curso. (2nd ed.). Madrid: Editorial Hidalguía. pp. 205–213. ISBN 9788400056698. 
8. ^ Cadenas y Vicent, Vicente de (1976). Heraldica patronimica española y sus patronimicos compuestos: Ensayo heraldico de apellidos originados en los nombres. Madrid: Hidalguía. ISBN 8400042794. ^{[page needed]}
9. ^ Article 195, Reglamento del Registro Civil: "On petition of the interested party, before the person in charge of the registry, the particle de shall be placed before the paternal surname that is usually a first name or begins with one" (for example, a birth may be registered for a "Pedro de Miguel Jiménez", to avoid having "Miguel" taken for a middle name). Article 206 does allow persons to remove de and an article from their surname, should they so desire.
10. ^ Castilian sovereigns restricted arms to members of the nobility by virtue of Law 64 of the 1583 Cortes de Tudela and Law 13 of the 1642 Cortes. This can be checked online at the website of the Real Chancilleria de Valladolid, which historically has handled cases involving hidalguía (nobility)."Simple search page" (in Spanish). Portal de Archivos Españoles. Ministro de Cultura-Spain. http://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas/servlets/Control_servlet?accion=0. Retrieved 14 May 2009. 

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.