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Vidal

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Vidal
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For other uses, see Vidal (disambiguation).

Vidal (Aragonese: [biˈðal], Catalan: [biˈðal], Occitan: [biˈðal, viˈdal], Spanish: [biˈðal]) is a name that originated in Spain based on the Latin Vitalis, referring to the trait of vitality. Though first used as a given name, it is most commonly found as a surname, which is incredibly common globally. It is a Catalan surname, originally from the historic Kingdom of Aragon and now common across Spanish-speaking nations. Infrequently seen as a given name, it has more popular variants, and is also found globally.

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Origins and etymology

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Vidal originated as a given name and may be given as a baptismal name,[4][1]: 223–224  a rendering of the Latin name Vītālis (and its origin, vita), meaning "life" and "vitality". This ultimately derived from a proto-Indo-European root that Juan Sebastián Elián, in his dictionary of surnames, referred to as guem and defined as meaning "to come into the world"; Elián wrote that this root meaning was interpreted as a blessing for long life for newborns. The meaning is also reflected in some of the surname's variants, those coming from vivas, "(to will that) you live", and vivere, the imperative "to live".[2]: 270 

The name was recorded in Spain at least as early as the 3rd century AD, when Saint Vidal of Complutum was martyred.[5][6] As a surname, it was first used in the Catalan language, originating in Barcelona.[2]: 270–271  In the 17th century, Vicente Mares [es] reviewed the surname's origins and, citing Rafael Martí de Viciana [es; ca], attributed it to 13th century knight Bernardo Vidal, one of the first Christian settlers of Atzeneta del Maestrat in Valencia.[7][8] Royal heraldry chronicler Vicente de Cadenas y Vicent suggested it was first recorded in Barcelona in 1228. Though Cadenas noted various settlements with the name around Barcelona, he wrote it was a patronymic.[9]

Chilean historian Luis Thayer Ojeda [es] wrote that the surname Vidal, at least in the case of being modified from Vital after migration, was a "geographical name" of the type that referred to a non-extant location's (e.g. farm) proper name, but which would still carry meaning in the country of origin.[10] A genetic analysis of people with the surname, published within a wider Catalan surname and genetics study by Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) in 2015, had 67 usable samples; of these, it found the subjects came from 57 different lines, showing significant genetic diversity and a large number of name origins.[11]

Historians Monique Bourin [fr] and Pascual Martínez Sopena wrote in 2010 that Vidal was one of a group of surnames that likely passed through Aragonese and Occitan as well as Catalan in its history.[12] Linguist Xaverio Ballester, also citing Enric Guinot [ca; es], wrote the same in 2021, adding that Vidal is therefore "indistinct", i.e. cannot be assigned as belonging to any language in the modern day.[13]: 203–205  Ballester and Guinot suggested that it was originally a staple and common surname in both Catalan and Valencian before being restricted to a "Catalan sphere".[13]: 285 

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History

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Roman Hispania

During the Roman rule of the Iberian peninsula, the Catholic martyr Vidal was born in present-day Madrid in the 3rd century. When the Diocletianic Persecution began, Vidal and his companions moved to Campania in exile, but were discovered and martyred in 293 AD near Padua.[5][6] As Vidal is the Spanish rendering, the given name is mostly associated with this Spanish martyr, whose feast day is celebrated on 2 July,[14] but he is not the only saint named (a version of) Vitalis. There are at least twelve Vidals in the santoral published by La Hormiga de Oro [es; ca].[1]: 224  The earlier martyr Vitalis of Milan (likewise known as Vidal in Spanish) may have contributed to the name being used by others. However, Vidal is practically unknown as a given name outside of Spanish-speaking nations, and has never been particularly common in Spain either.[15][14]

Elián suggested usage may be more related to its meaning than being named after anyone,[2]: 270  with linguist María Simón Parra agreeing that this given name in medieval usage (like others based on positive adjectives and nouns) "expressed the hopes and ideals of the people who gave it".[16] Comparatively, Felipe de la Gándara [es] argued for a connection between the Roman Spanish saints Vidal and Marcellus, and opined that their names were likely used as family identifiers, and could have been used in conjunction with each other, as was common among notable families in Roman times when people only had one name. He suggested that both the given name and surname Vidal descend from the martyr.[17]

Pre-Spanish kingdoms

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Castell de Sant Jordi d'Alfama [ca; es]; the land grant for this to be built may be the earliest recording of the surname.[7]

Historian Julián del Castillo [es] wrote in the 16th century that Vidal "is a noble surname of knights in the Kingdom of Aragon and Catalonia".[18] The name has been recorded since at least the 12th century in the east of Spain: Peter II of Aragon granted land in Baix Ebre to Martí Vidal in order to build a monastery [ca; es] for the founding of the Order of Sant Jordi d'Alfama.[7][19] It may also have been a surname in the name of Sancho Vidal,[a] a 10th-century knight who discovered a plot to kill the infant prince Sancho II and rescued him. Sancho Vidal's descendants were permitted to use the hereditary surname Abarca – King Sancho II's epithet – and receive the associated privileges.[21] The traditional coat of arms is a red background with a silver eagle wearing a golden crown,[2]: 270  which was bestowed upon Bernardo Vidal during the siege of Burriana.[8]

Mares wrote that by the 1680s the Vidal family had "governed the city of Valencia for three hundred years";[7] indeed, there were at least twelve members of the Vidal family present when the city was signed over to James I of Aragon in the 13th century, most of whom received land grants.[22][b] The knight Bernardo Vidal had been an advisor to James I during the conquest of Valencia.[c] According to Francisco Diago [es], Bernardo Vidal de Besalú (either the advisor Bernardo Vidal or his relative) was courageous in the Battle of the Puig and was thus awarded Carpesa by James I.[7][d] Additionally, Berenguer Vidal and the Bishop of Valencia were entrusted with distribution of lands in the new Kingdom of Valencia and for drawing borders with the Kingdom of Castile.[22]

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The name attested (for Peire Vidal) in a 13th-century chansonnier

Raimon Vidal de Bezaudun (Vidal de Besalú), a Catalan troubadour of the 13th century, is attributed with founding the Consistori del Gay Saber in Toulouse (present day France), a literary and poetry academy for the art of troubadours that also started the tradition of Floral Games in the Catalan-speaking world.[24] The first winner of this event, in 1324, was another Vidal: Occitan writer Arnaut Vidal de Castelnou d'Ari.[25]

In the 14th century, Vidal knights were closely connected to the royal household of Aragon and participated in the Siege of Almería and the Aragonese conquest of Sardinia, while others were royal prosecutors in the kingdom's territories of Roussillon (present day France), Cerdanya (France-Spain border), and Sardinia (present day Italy).[22] The city of Barcelona had two Vidal knights promoted to the Order of the Golden Spur: Mateo de Vidal y Despla and his son Lorenzo Antonio de Vidal y de Sabastida, who were elevated to the honour by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 and 1537 respectively.[26]

The surname had arrived in Latin America by the 17th century, when a Bartolomé Vidal was an organiser in Michoacán.[27]

As a given name, Vidal is found in the 12th century as the name (surname unknown) of the second abbot of Poblet Abbey in the Prades Mountains, a role he briefly served from 30 November 1152 (when he was appointed via papal bull by Pope Eugene III) until his death prior to September in 1153. His name was then taken by other abbots at Poblet, Vidal de Alguayre and Vidal III, in the 13th century.[28] In the 14th century, the bishop of Valencia was called Vidal, third son of the first Vidal de Blanes; bishop Vidal's nephew, Vidal de Blanes (III), became governor of Valencia in 1413. His son, the fourth of this name, was a favourite of Alfonso V due to his service in the Aragonese conquest of Naples; Vidal de Blanes (IV) was taken prisoner with Alfonso at the Battle of Ponza and in return was awarded the Viceroyalty of Mallorca in 1446.[29]: 591b [30]

In the Balearics

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The coat of arms for the Mallorcan Vidal family of Montuïri

A Pedro Vidal participated in the conquest of Mallorca and was rewarded with Montuïri in 1230 in return;[22] ever since the victory in 1229, this Vital family became rooted in the Kingdom of Mallorca and formed a significant part of its nobility. Branches of this family saw their surname become variants on Pidal.[3] In the 14th century, there was a deputy for Mallorca called Pedro Vidal;[31]: 251  Berenguer Pitalis was a noted member of Mallorcan nobility who represented the island for Jaume III.[3] Vidal has been identified as a typical Mallorcan surname;[32] linguist Marc Gandarillas noted it is "not properly" Mallorcan, in that it appears across the Catalan-speaking world.[33]

The surname also has illustrious history on the Balearic island of Menorca, where it was first recorded at the start of the 14th century with Pedro Vital – whose high office required Latinisation of names but whose name would have been Vidal – a deputy for Menorca but based in Perpignan (present day France).[31]: 251  The name is found written as Vidal from at least the 15th century, when notary Pedro Vidal was living in Mahón; it is also found rendered as Vitalis, in the case of a council member,[31]: 251  and again as Vital, with two men who were part of the island's jury. The jurors' family name was at this point well established in Ciutadella, and persisted through the 16th century.[31]: 252 

There are extensive records from the early 16th century with the Vidal del Rafalet line,[e] members of which held municipal positions in Mahón between 1509 and 1679, including those of Sindico, Bayle and Amostazen.[31]: 250 [f] In 1678, Francisco Vidal hijo de Antonio, a member of the line, was made a captain; his brother Juan was promoted to captain two days after Francisco retired, in recognition of the service of himself and his father, and had a more notable career in warfare and royal service. Their line, vassals in Mahón, was still producing captains in 1724.[31]: 250–251  Another Vidal line, from Alaior, also held high municipal positions there and produced captains in the 17th century,[31]: 252  and the lines of two brothers, Don Juan and D. Domingo Vidal y Segui, were ennobled by Charles III in 1782.[31]: 251  The name was very widespread: there was also a peasant farmer called Juan Vidal, recorded in the 17th century due to his bravery in capturing twelve Moors disembarking near Mahón.[31]: 252 

Among Sephardim

As a given name, Vidal is one of the Spanish names common among Sephardim, with linguist Xaverio Ballester referring to it as "omnipresent".[13]: 383–384 [37] A reason for this, mentioned in the 2006 A Dictionary of First Names, may be due to an alternative etymology, with Jews in Iberia using a preexisting Spanish equivalent of the Hebrew name Haim with the same meaning.[38] Ballester noted that, among Jews, Vidal was found most frequently as a given name in Sagunto in the 14th and 15th centuries; Sagunto was one of the first towns in Spain where the Jewish diaspora settled during the Roman era.[13]: 384 

The surname, though less than the given name, is also common among the Sephardi diaspora.[37][32] The 2015 UPF study noted speculation of a Jewish origin for some lines of the surname (as a possible direct translation of Haim),[11][g] but actually found that the proportion of Y chromosomes with potential Jewish origin among Vidal subjects is – at most – the 10% average observed across the general Spanish population.[11][h] Gonzalo Álvarez Chillida and Ricardo Izquierdo Benito, experts on antisemitism in Spain, noted that proliferation of the surname among the Sephardi diaspora is due to the known fact of conversos taking such Catalan names upon conversion, "even those [names] of noble benefactors" (i.e. Vidal).[32]

Although the surname lacks a Jewish origin and is not associated with Judaism within Spain, Álvarez and Izquierdo wrote that it being widespread among Jewish communities is "not surprising", given the general commonality of the name; they considered this specifically among the reasons that identifying Spanish Jewish names (rather than Spanish names taken by Jews) is difficult.[32] Ballester, in discussion of Spanish surnames of Jews in the Kingdom of Valencia, came to the same conclusion but[13]: 386  (though having acknowledged its general commonality in Valencia)[13]: 178–179, 205–206  suggested Vidal was among the "more characteristically [Jewish]" names[13]: 386  and that there was historical association.[13]: 285 

Historically, the surname is among the 276 found in records of the Spanish Inquisition that were used to identify supposed Judaizers, those who promoted Jewish practice; this list mostly comprised the surnames of defendants tried before the Cremadissa in 1691, and so is neither an accurate reflection of Jews persecuted by the Inquisition nor of Jewish families of the time.[32] Josep Maria Albaigès [ca], also citing Mallorcan Xueta historian and writer of converso descent Miquel Forteza [ca],[39][40] noted that the names on the Inquisition list were "the most common in Catalonia and even in Spain", and that "this destroyed any fantasy about the existence of specifically Jewish surnames." Vidal did not appear in Albaigès' list of Jewish surnames; it was included in his list of surnames associated with Xuetes (Mallorcan conversos), though he compiled this list to demonstrate the fallacy of Jewish surnames of the time and the arbitrary nature of their segregation.[i][1]: 62–64 

In modernity

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The back of Chilean footballer Arturo Vidal's shirt in 2013

In the 18th century, Vidal was still a distinguished surname in Aragon, where one line from Magallón had privileges based on descent from a man named in a bull from Pope Clement VII.[41]

In the late 18th century in Haiti, a Mr. Vidal was recorded to have kidnapped 500 men from a prison in Port-au-Prince in order to traffic them to Cartagena and Portobelo.[42]: 305–306  More recently, in Uruguay, the surname has appeared as that of slaves[43] and of a non-white soldier during the war in Banda Oriental.[44] Though Catalan surnames were less common in Venezuela than its neighbours, Vidal was among those reported in the 20th century.[45] In Chile in the 21st century, surnames are social indicators, a phenomenon Chilean journalist Óscar Contardo explained by comparing Vial (a "buen apellido" with strong social cache) and the orthographically and phonologically similar Vidal: "The supposition doesn't make any sense, unless it is about a fellow Chilean and a comparison between surnames. Because a Vial will never ever be the same as a Vidal. There are Vidal's who would kill to be Vial's".[46]

Vidal was among the 500 most common masculine given names, and 750 most common surnames, in Latin America in 1968; by capital city, it was among the most common surnames in Buenos Aires, Caracas, La Paz, Lima, Mexico City, Montevideo, and Santiago.[47]

In 1994, it was the joint-24th most common surname in Barcelona.[1]: 61–62  As of 2014, there were reportedly over 500,000 people with the surname Vidal, making it the 1,019th most common in the world.[48][better source needed] The Kingdom of Valencia heavily implemented expulsion of the Moriscos in the early 17th century; by 1625, Alfarrasí was nearly completely depopulated due to the banishment of Arabs, with Vidals being among the families moving into the area afterwards. The population has not recovered, and about a quarter of all modern Alfarrasí residents still have Vidal as their first surname.[49] As of 2016, the surname was proportionally most popular in Castellón and Lleida.[13]: 206, 335–336 

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People

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Vidal may refer to:

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See also

Notes

  1. Though with some date errors, Hispanic toponymy scholar Grace de Jesús C Álvarez referred to Sancho Vidal as "a knight of the Vidal line",[20]: 41  which would establish this surname from at least the early 10th century.
  2. Ferrer Vidal was given the property of Ali Alhadava; Domingo Vidal was given that of Mahomet Alquertevi; Berenguer Vidal was given that of Ali Amnalezmer (or Abnalezmer); Guillen Vidal received that of Ebray Abneledi; Alegre Vidal received the property of Ali Amizleati; Bernardo Vidal was given Carpesa; Bertran Vidal received land in Avingahuf; J. Vidal was given property and inheritance of Juçef Abnibediç; G. Vidal received land in Coscollar as well as the property of Aly Alamello and properties of Juçef Benaladip next to that of Alamello; B. Granera Vidal was among the people awarded Castellón to split between themselves; J. Vidal was one of three people awarded land in "Beniloco near Maçalmarda"; and B. Vidal received other land near la Boatella. Guillen Vidal (son of Ramon Vidal), Juan Vidal, Bernardo Vidal (I) Pedro Vidal, Berenguer Vidal, and Bernardo Vidal (II) are named as participants in the conquest.[22][23]
  3. A relative of, but not the same person as, the Bernardo Vidal from whom Mares said the surname originated.
  4. The Llibre del Repartiment recorded that Carpesa was given to Bernardo Vidal de Besalú. The Trobes de mossèn Jaume Febrer [es] suggest Vidal sold it back to James I.
  5. Rafalet being located in present-day Es Castell
  6. A Sindico was a member of the council of judges who also performed the everyday running of the Ayuntamiento, and a Bayle was analogous to a bailiff in the sense of overseeing a bailiwick (regions in the Catalan-speaking world could be described as Baylias, bailiwicks; see the modern term batlle). Though these offices held less power than that of the Governor (of the island),[34] the Sindicos and Bayle of Mahón are known to have forced the Governor to back down on at least one occasion, despite threats of punishment, by showing he was subject to the rule of law and the matter had already been previously dismissed.[35]
    Amostazen was defined as originating from the Arabic-Spanish term almotacén, equating to "judge of weights and measures" (i.e. an overseer of markets); as well as the officeholder title within the Balearic Islands, Amostazen could also refer to rules by which markets were organised in different towns on the islands.[36]
  7. This claim is first found in Toponimos en apellidos hispanos from 1968, which referred to French Jews doing so.[20]: 484 
  8. I.e. making it statistically less likely that someone with the surname Vidal has a Jewish ancestor than is typical.
  9. Albaigès introduced this list as being the exemplification of the fallacy; also on the list, for example, are García (comparable in commonality to English Smith), Ferrer (literally Smith), Domingo and Doménech (devoutly Christian names), and – among those noted as "especially segregated" – Piña.
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