Evolution of Anthroponyms in an Area of Linguistic Transition: A Socio-Onomastic Study

Abstract

This study analyses the evolution of the anthroponymical repertoire of a municipal council located in the west of the province of Vizcaya, in the Spanish Basque Country. It has traditionally been a Spanish-speaking area, although it is now clearly influenced by the language policies of the Basque Autonomous Community to which it belongs, where recent years have witnessed a major expansion in the use of the Basque language in different ambits. This study examines the evolution of onomastic usages over a period that includes the transition from the Franco era to democracy in the 1970s, with the ensuing quantitative and qualitative shift in the choice of children’s names. This period records an abrupt change in tendencies from the traditional Spanish onomastic sources to a new repertoire, somewhat alien to local usages, but with considerable identifying strength, a positive stereotype, and a stratification of the phenomenon according to the gender variable.