PLEASE help me with afew of my familes last names?

Question

miramontes
alcantar
quiroz


i would like no love to no where my familys last names originate.it would help me a lot <3

Answer 1

try here:


Last Name Meanings

Answer 2

I'll second the motion on the notion that they are Spanish in origin. In addition, I would suspect that Alcantar might in fact be "Al Cantar"; if so, there's a good chance that it is Turkish, dating from the time in which the Turks/Moors were in Spain.

Edit: Ok - I just looked up Alcantar since it's such an interesting-sounding name. I'm Jewish, and I speak a bit of Hebrew, so that tipped me off ("el" is "the" in Hebrew; "al" is the Arabic equivalent) . Alcantar is indeed an Arabic-based Spanish name. It comes (most recently) from "Alcantera," a town in Valencia (where we get the great oranges of the same name from, originally). It means "the bridge", and is a "habitational" name for a group of towns there.

Also, for "Miramont" - I have a vague recollection somewhere back there that it means something like "shining mountain" (I KNOW the "mont" part is mountain - same for "Montana" for instance). I'm not 100 percent sure, but that's what popped to mind immediately, so it's a pretty decent bet.

The only thing I got for Quiroz is as a variant of "Quiros" - it's just a habitational name of residents of a town of the same name in Asturies - which is nothing more than the near and middle east - in short, another name with VERY distant Arabic connections.

Quiroz and Alcantar have also been seen in Western Indies families in the last couple of centuries, so it probably marks a migration pattern. That's the best I can do with a quick search.

Answer 3

Ancestry.com lists no data for a place of origin for Miramontes and Alcantar, which merely means that these families didn't come into the United States by way of a port of entry. However, Ancestry.com does note that in 1920, between 11 to 20 Miramontes families lived in Texas and California, between 4 and 10 lived in Arizona, and between 1 and 3 lived in Minnesota, Alabama, and New Mexico. The following web site links the name to Californianos: http://www.losCalifornianos.org/queries_231-240.htm.


Ancestry.com does list several places of origin for the name Quiroz:

S Hnd (is this a misspelling of South America) 4
Costa Rica 1
Cont Am 1
Columbia 1

For more information on this last name, you can also google
Quiroz Family Genealogy Forum at http://genforum.genealogy.com/quiroz/

Happy ancestry hunting!

Answer 4

We have no way of knowing where they originated. The names are Spanish, but most of the people who have those names never had an ancestor who lived in Spain. When Spain colonized, they assigned Spanish names to the people they conquered, but not because of family ties to Spain, but because it was their goal to erase the existing culture and replace it with their own.

So there is no answer to your question that is going to be helpful other than you need to research your family tree back as far as you can and learn what you can of your ancestors on your own.

Answer 5

hey... welcome.
As mentioned above, looking just for surnames (origin or meaning) can be very vague or misleading. I'd always rather "tempt" someone into learning how to specifically find YOUR ancestors, and the exact history of those individuals.
I reccommend www.cyndislist.com as a fantastic place to see how many resources are out there, for family history. No, this is NOT a page to put your name in a search engine. Cyndi also has a great section for beginners, and some of the things to look out for.
I'd wager your roots are in Calif...

Answer 6

Buckle up then, you're in for a ride! Since you know the names and have the idea already whose parents you'll be looking for to document the next generation back, and then there will be the next. As you get birth and death documents you'll learn the place and parents' names.

Answer 7

they all sound Spanish to me

Answer 8

I can't help you but they are beautiful. I hope you appreciate them.

Answer 9

Have a look at the links posted below, they each have a different fact for you.
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/Fact.aspx?fid=10&ln=Miramontes
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/Fact.aspx?&fid=2&ln=Miramontes&fn=
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/Fact.aspx?&fid=8&ln=Miramontes&fn=
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/Fact.aspx?&fid=10&ln=Alcantar&fn=
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/Fact.aspx?&fid=2&ln=Alcantar&fn=
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/Fact.aspx?&fid=10&ln=Quiroz&fn=
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/Fact.aspx?&fid=5&fn=&ln=Quiroz
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/Fact.aspx?&fid=2&ln=Quiroz&fn=
hope this helps.