Anobiliary particle is a type ofonomastic particle used in asurname or family name in manyWestern cultures to signal thenobility of a family. Theparticle used varies depending on the country, language and period of time. In some languages, it is the same as a regularprepositional particle that was used in thecreation of many surnames. In some countries, it became customary to distinguish the nobiliary particle from the regular one by a different spelling, although in other countries these conventions did not arise, occasionally resulting in ambiguity. The nobiliary particle can often be omitted in everyday speech or certain contexts.
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InDenmark andNorway, there is a distinction between (1) nobiliary particles in family names and (2) prepositions denoting an individual person's place of residence.
Nobiliary particles likeaf,von, andde (English:of) are integrated parts of family names. The use of particles was not a particular privilege for the nobility. On the other hand, particles were almost exclusively used by and associated with them. Especially in the late 17th and 18th centuries, a person would often receive a particle along with his or her old or new family name when ennobled. Examples are families likede Gyldenpalm (lit. 'of Goldenpalm') andvon Munthe af Morgenstierne (lit. 'of Munthe of Morningstar'). Otherwise, particles would arrive together with immigrants. Examples are families likevon Ahnen. Prominent non-noble families having used particles arevon Cappelen,von der Lippe, andde Créqui dit la Roche.
The prepositiontil (English:to, but translates asof; comparable with Germanzu) is placed behind a person's full name in order to denote his or her place of residence, for exampleSigurd Jonsson til Sudreim.
InFrance—and inEngland, largely as a result of theNorman Conquest—the particlede precedes anom de terre ('name of land') in many families of the French nobility: for example,Maximilien de Béthune.[1] A few do not have this particle: for example,Pierre Séguier,Lord Chancellor of France. The particle can also bedu ('of the' in the masculine form, analogous tode la in the feminine),d' (used, per the rules oforthography, when thenom de terre begins with a vowel; for example,Ferdinand d'Orléans), ordes ('of the' in the plural). In French,de indicates a link between the land and a person—eitherlandlord orpeasant.
The nobleman was always designatedescuyer, for 'squire' in English form (dapifer in Latin), orchevalier for 'knight' (equites in Latin). Only knights were designated by the spoken stylemonseigneur ormessire for 'sir' (dominus in Latin), as, for example, "monseigneurBertrand du Guesclin, chevalier"—in English form, "Sir Bertrand du Guesclin, knight".
By convention, surnames with the non-noble use of the particlede are spelled as a single word (e.g., "Pierre Dupont"),[2] though many such surnames conserved thede as a separate word.
Since the sixteenth century, surnames among the French nobility have often been composed of a combination ofpatronymic names, titles, ornoms de terres ('names of lands' or estates) joined by the prepositionde, as in "Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord".[3] The use of this particle began to be an essential appearance of nobility. Following the end of theKingdom of France, however, the use ofde did not invariably denote nobility. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, some middle-class families simply adopted the particle without being ennobled;Maximilien Robespierre's family, for example, used the particle for some generations.[4][5]
InGermany andAustria,von (descendingfrom) orzu (residentat) generally precedes the surname of a noble family (in, for example, the names ofAlexander von Humboldt andGottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim). If it is justified, they can be used together (von und zu): the ruler of Liechtenstein as of 2022, for example, isJohannes Adam Ferdinand Alois Josef Maria Marko d'Aviano Pius von und zu Liechtenstein.
In some cases – although unusually, and perhaps introduced to distinguish collateral branches of the same family – these more common particles might be supplemented withauf (i.e., residing at yet another place different from the onezu refers to and meaning[up]on in English):Von A-dynasty/place, zu B-town, auf C-ville/location/residence. Rarer variants are "von der", "von dem", "zum", "zur", etc.
As in France and Spain, not all noble families use a nobiliary particle. The names of the most ancient nobility, theUradel, but also names of some old untitled nobility, often do not contain eithervon orzu, such asGrote,Knigge orVincke.[6] Conversely, the prefixvon occurs in the names of 200 to 300 non-noble families,[7] much likevan in the Netherlands.
Especially in northwestern Germany, e.g. Bremen, Hamburg, Holstein, Lower Saxony, Schleswig, Westphalia, and in German-speaking Switzerland, the particlesvon,zu, etc., may be elements in non-noble surnames and usually designate the place of origin.[7] In Austria and Bavaria, non-noble surnames containingvon were widely altered by compounding it to the main surname element in the 19th century, such asvon Werden →Vonwerden.[7]
In the Medieval Kingdom of HungaryLatin was the official language in which royal decrees and all kinds of legal documents were issued.Hungarian noble families used the nobiliary particlede with the name of an estate granted by theKing as a royal donation. For instance, the aristocratic Hungarian family of the Counts Zichy, having received donations of the two estates of Zichy and Vásonkeő (the first located inSomogy County and the second inVeszprém county), usedde Zichy andde Vásonkeő; as this family used two nobiliary particles, the construction in Latin for the whole family name isComes Zichy de Zichy et Vásonkeő: the Latin conjunctionet (and) connects the estate's names. InHungarian, the relevant county or town of origin is represented with thesuffix-i at its end: so, in the case of this family, the place names would be written aszicsi andvásonkeői and would be placed before the family name; the two place names are connected by the Hungarianés (and). So the result would bezicsi és vásonkeői Zichy.
Starting in the High Middle Ages, West Iberian nobles, who had only used patronyms, started adding the names of their manors, and in a few cases nicknames, into their names. For instance, Egas Gomes, lord of Sousa, becameEgas Gomes de Sousa.King Alfonso X's son Fernando was said to be born with a hairy mole and was calledFernando de la Cerda ("Fernando of the Bristle"), and his son Fernando kept the nickname as his second name and was also calledFernando de la Cerda. In the 15th and 16th centuries, these surnames were adopted by the common people and are among the most common Portuguese surnames today, so thede particle and its variations have not indicated nobility for centuries.
Furthermore, Portuguese nobility, irrespective of any noble name with or without particle, is traditionally recognised only in people both of whose grandfathers and grandmothers are noble.
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 kingManuel I extinguished the previousbourgeoisie 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.
The prepositionde and its different orthographic forms (do,dos,da anddas), as in France, do not indicate nobility in the bearer. Modern Portuguese law recognises any citizen's right not to sign these particles, even if they are present in that citizen's identification documents, and the opposite right, i.e. to sign one's namewith such particles even if not present in one's documents, is also recognized. In fact, articles and prepositions are considered in Portuguese nomenclature an embellishment to any name.
Traditionally, good taste made Portuguese nobility cut down on the prepositions linking their many surnames, and they would sign just one at the beginning of the name; the last surname would be preceded bye (and). For instance, the nameJoão Duarte da Silva dos Santos da Costa de Sousa should be signed just asJoão Duarte da Silva Santos Costa e Sousa. In the present day, it may also legally be signedJoão Duarte Silva Santos Costa Sousa. The laste is a substitute for all previous surnames' prepositions except the first one, and cannot ever be used without a previous preposition to justify it. An exception to this rule is only shown with duplicate surnames linked bye, for instance maternal surnames that 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 became customary for Portuguese titled nobility to indicate their titles as subsidiary surnames, as, for instance, in the name ofDiana Álvares Pereira de Melo, 11th Duchess of Cadaval who goes byDiana de Cadaval after her title. This social rule does not apply to members of thePortuguese royal house.
InSpain, the nobiliary particlede is also used in two different styles. The first is a "patronymic-de-toponymic" formula,[8] as used by, among others, the fifteenth-century generalGonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, the fourteenth-century chronicler and poetPero López de Ayala, the European discoverer of the eastern Pacific,Vasco Núñez de Balboa, and many otherconquistadors.[9] The second style is use of the particlede 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 thede 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 the nobiliary particlede without patronymic include the names of the sixteenth-centuryÁlvaro de Bazán, 1st Marquis of Santa Cruz and the conquistadorHernando de Soto. This is a common tradition in Spanish culture. Unlike French, Spanish lackselision, and so no contraction is used when the surname starts with a vowel (though exceptionally we findPedro Arias Dávila), but contraction is used when the surname includes the articleel as inBaltasar del Alcázar.
A Spanish law on names from 1958 and still in force does not allow a person to add ade to their surname if it does not already have it. The law does allow for one exception: ade may be added in front of a surname that could be otherwise misunderstood as a forename.[10] Conclusive proof of the nobility of a surname can be determined by establishing whether that surname is associated with ablazon, since for centuriescoats of arms have been borne legally only by persons of noble condition.[11]
Surnames composed of two names linked by ahyphen ("-"), implying that equal importance is given to both families, do not indicate nobility. For example, the hyphenated surnameSuárez-Llanos does not indicate nobility.
InSwitzerland,de orvon, depending oncanton of origin, precedes a noble name,de showing a Romance language background andvon showing a German or Allemanic background.
In the Middle Ages, the wordsde, borrowed from Latin and French, and the Englishof, were often used in names inEngland and Wales, as in "Simon de Montfort" and "Richard of Shrewsbury". The usage of "de" is often misunderstood, as in most cases it was used only in documents written in Latin or French. At the time, in translating into English, "de" was sometimes converted into "of" and sometimes omitted; only rarely was it used in the English form of a name. It is also significant that both "de" and "of" were used simply to show geographical origin in the names of people of all classes, so that in England and Wales neither word should be looked on as in themselves nobiliary.
Despite the lack of official significance of the words "de" or "of" in names, there was sometimes a perception that they connoted nobility. For example, on 8 October 1841, a month afterThomas Trafford was created the1st Baronet de Trafford, Queen Victoria issued aroyal licence to "Sir Thomas Joseph Trafford ... that he may henceforth resume the ancient patronymic of his family, by assuming and using the surname of De Trafford, instead of that of 'Trafford' and that such surname may be henceforth taken and used by his issue."[12] The anglicisation to Trafford had probably occurred in the 15th century, when the Norman article "de", signifying that a family originated from a particular place, was generally dropped in England. Theresumption of such older versions of family names was aRomantic trend in 19th-century England, encouraged by a mistaken belief that the article "de" indicated nobility.[13]
As in Spain, English and Welsh surnames composed of two names linked by ahyphen ("-") do not necessarily indicate nobility, e.g.Rees-Jones; not all double barrelled names require a hyphen, e.g.David Lloyd George. In the United Kingdom, amulti-barrelled name was indicative of good pedigree and social standing, such that there was and remains a link between hyphenated names andnobility andgentry. This was to preserve the names of aristocratic families which had died out in the mainline. When this was to occur, it was generally possible for the last male member of his family to convey his "name and arms" (coat of arms) with the rest of his estate via his will, usually to a male descendant of one of his female relatives, who would then apply for a royal licence to take the name. Royal licences could similarly be obtained where the applicant's mother was aheraldic heiress, although this was less common. For instance,Sir Winston Spencer Churchill's surname evidences his descendancy from both the aristocraticSpencer family, amongst whom theEarls Spencer are prominent, and the illustrious background of the Churchills, who hark back to their founder-hero, the prominent military leaderJohn Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and whose descendants had died out in the male line (typically the male line descent would be placed last, so that it would have been 'Churchill-Spencer' had the royal licence not specified that it would be 'Spencer-Churchill'). Some of the grandest members of the British aristocracy have triple-barrelled names, for instance the Vane-Tempest-Stewart family, who hold themarquessate of Londonderry; for a while, theDukes of Buckingham and Chandos bore five surnames: Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville.
In contemporary Britain this correlation has weakened, as more middle and lower-class families have started hyphenating their names on marriage, and/or passing it to their issue, with 11% of newly-weds in the 18–34 demographic hyphenating their surnames as of 2017.[14]
In modern times, a nobiliary particle (as the term is widely understood on the Continent) is rarely used. More usual is theterritorial designation, which in practice is almost identical.
In Scotland, there is strictly no nobiliary particle, but the use of the wordof as aterritorial designation has a long history. In this usage, "of" and a place name follow on from a family surname, as in the name "Aeneas MacDonell of Glengarry". If the place name is identical to the surname, it is sometimes rendered as "that Ilk", e.g. "Iain Moncreiffe of that Ilk". Recognition of a territorial designation is granted in Scotland by theLord Lyon to Scottish armigers (those entitled to bear acoat of arms) who own or were born in or are associated with named land, generally in a rural area not forming part of a town. TheLord Lyon advises that for a territorial designation to be recognised there must be "ownership of a substantial area of land to which a well-attested name attaches, that is to say, ownership of an 'estate', or farm or, at the very least, a house with policies extending to five acres or thereby".[15] The territorial designation in this case is considered to be an indivisible part of the name, not in itself necessarily indicating historical feudal nobility, but recognition in a territorial designation is usually accorded alongside the grant or matriculation of aScottish coat of arms, which effectively confers or recognises minor nobility status, even if not ancient. Despite this, the right to bear a territorial designation can also exist for landowners who are notarmigerous, but this right is not made good until receiving official recognition; Learney comments: "mere assumption is not sufficient to warrant these territorial and chiefly names".[16] A person bearing a Scottish territorial designation is either aFeudal Baron,Chief or Chieftain or aLaird, the latter denoting "landowner", or is a descendant of one of the same.[17][18] TheLord Lyon is the ultimate arbiter as to determining entitlement to a territorial designation, and his right of discretion in recognising these, and their status as a name, dignity or title, have been confirmed in the Scottish courts.[19] In speech or correspondence, aLaird is correctly addressed by the name of his estate (particularly in lowland Scotland) or his surname with designation, e.g.William Maitland of Lethington would be addressed as "Lethington" or "Maitland of Lethington".[17]
Although many languages have nobiliary particles, their use may sometimes be misleading, as it often does not give any evidence of nobility. Some examples are:
ณ ๒ [นะ] บ. ... ถ้าใช้ นําหน้าสกุล หมายความว่า แห่ง เช่น ณ อยุธยา ณ ระนอง.