Saenz

Saenz (pronounced "sigh-nz") is a Spanish surname originating in The Kingdom of Spain in the Castile region, now known as La Rioja

History

Originating from its unknown, original semetic surname, "Saenz" (sigh-nz): From the latin, "Tersanctus" or "Sānctus" (Origin: < NL: lit., thrice holy (trans. of LGk triságios), equiv. to L ter thrice + sānctus holy; see saint).

Spelling variations of this family name include: Saens, Sans, Sanx, Sanz, Sainz, Saiz, Saez, and many more. [ [http://www.houseofnames.com/coatofarms_details.asp?sId=&s=saenz saenz Coat of Arms, Family Crest ] ]

Originating from the Castilla La Vieja (now Rioja) region in The Kingdom of Spain created by Semitic families who immigrated into the region, some via the Way of St. James, due to religious conflicts in their native lands using this name as a way of assimilating into their new country of settlement.

Integrating with Spain's native people, the name became common in this territory. These families, and those like them, were known as Conversos or Sephardi. Later in 1478, due to the Alhambra Decree, many Saenz family members that retained forms of Judaism faiths were forced to migrate to new lands.

Several Spanish Jews living in Spain, so-called Conversos, changed their faith to Catholicism to avoid Catholic persecution for having their original faith be Judaism. These Jews were forced to adopt Spanish names to live in Spain after conversion, using Spanish names to "prove" to authorities that their conversion was "true". ("see Religious conversion")

This was common place in dark-age times, both in Spain and Portugal, where Jews adopted tree names in Portuguese, like "Oliveira" ( olive tree ), "Pereira" ( pear tree ), "Salgueiro" ( willow tree), "Figueira" ( fig tree ), etc. In Portugal, these Jews were called "Cristãos-Novos" ( new Christians ). The Saenz coat of arms denotes a tree in line with this Jewish aspect, as well as two similar fruits on either side of the tree and opposing lions on the latter half of the shield, depicting a duality involved in the root of the name.

During the Spanish conquest of Mexico several Saenz members migrated over to New Spain, which later became Mexico and the United States of America. This was genetically proven when Bennett Greenspan, the President of Family Tree DNA Inc., had this to say regarding a DNA research project on Mexican families:

Not all Saenz families, however, are from Jewish origin. There are some who bear the surname Saenz that are purely European or of Arab (middle-eastern) origin taken on by a small percentage of Islamic Arabs during the "Way of St. James" era, after the period known as the "Golden Age of Islam".

Being a widespread family name in Spain, not all Saenz families are related to each other today.

Today a large number of Saenz families still reside in Spain, France and throughout Europe. The largest population of Saenz's in the world currently reside in Basque CountryFact|date=March 2008 (an autonomous community), an administrative division of Spain.

The United States also has relatively large Saenz populations. This is because many Spaniards migrated to and settled in the New Spain territories. Some time later, many Saenz families left the New Spain region during and after a mexican revolt against the wealthy New Spaniards. With a high percentage of Saenz's eventually moving further North and throughout The Americas (Texas primarily [http://www.ancestry.com/facts/Saenz-family-history.ashx 1920 Census] ).

Notes and references

4- [http://www.mfnames.com/mnames/s/origin-and-meaning-of-sanctius.htm] - Origin and Meaning of Sanctius

External links

* [http://www.BodegasSaenzdeSantamaria.com de Santamaria] - Wine company depicting the Saenz surname based in La Rioja, the historic Saenz land of origin
* [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/RR/hgr6.html History of Los Saenz, Texas] - Brief overview of the history of Roma-Los Saenz, Texas
* [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Mexico.html Jewish families in Mexico] - Life history of many Spanish families who practiced the Jewish faith while living in Mexico