Meaning and origin of the surname Garcia

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The oldest Latin form recorded in the spelling of the Garcia surname is Garsea, Garci and Garza, but the roots of this name could predate Latin times and come from the Basque surname “artz” meaning “the bear”, used since the Middle Ages north and south of the Pyrenees.

The meaning points to the descriptive adjective “gaztea”, which means “the young or youth”, similar to the French word “garçon” (young man) and used in the same sense of the English surname “Young”. In many countries the surname García is also related to the Gothic “garxa y garcha”, which means “prince of graceful sight”.

Origin of the surname Garcia

The origins of the surname are prehistoric, that is, prior to any known and used writing, probably two thousand years before Christ. Therefore, this surname is related to the times when man lived from hunting and fishing. In those times, men were often known by the names of the animals they hunted, and particularly when these were associated with strength, bravery, and power.

The bear possessed all these qualities, just like the wolf and the lion, and all of them, with the passage of time, entered mythology and the subsequent heraldry of the different regions, as well as their surnames.

According to examples taken from civil and religious records, this surname was one of the first to arrive in the New World from the Americas. These records include Cristóbal García in Asunción, Mexico Federal District, on November 14, 1645; Felipe Santiago García at Mission San Carlos in Borromeo, California, on December 13, 1777; and López García in Santa Catarina, Mexico, on June 26, 1778.

Coat of arms

Although the coat of arms of the Garcia surname has many variations, the most popular has on it a crest of a field of silver with a heron whose chest bleeds. It is set within a blue border, charged with a seal of saltires in gold. The first recorded spelling of the surname is that of Diego García, dated August 29, 1624 in San Pablo Apostal, Mexico, during the reign of King Philip 1V of Spain, Emperor of Mexico between 1621 and 1665.

The process of creating coats of arms, also known as family crests, began in the 11th century, although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries before this. The new art of heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their own coat of arms, including all descendants of the Garcia surname.

Sources

Carolina Posada Osorio (BEd)
Carolina Posada Osorio (BEd)
(Licenciada en Educación. Licenciada en Comunicación e Informática educativa) -COLABORADORA. Redactora y divulgadora.

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