Falcon (surname)

Falcon is a surname. Some possible places of origin are:

  • Pompeyo Falcó, a Roman consul
  • a Scandinavian prince, who arrived in Spain about 1080
  • a prince of Sulcia, called Falcón, who ruled the island of Candia, near Venice, Italy and who married a daughter of King Camirto of Dacia
Falcon
Language(s)Spanish, Italian
Origin
Meaningone who raises falcons (possible)
Other names
Variant form(s)Falcó

A possible beginning of the patronymic derivation of Falcon is Saint Falcón, who died in 1147, and is attributed with the popularization of the given name. Another is the Italian surname Falcó and Falcóne, which could easily have become Falcón in Spain.

In the coastal area of Languedoc, Girona and Ibiza there are areas known as Falcó, which may account for the surname in Catalonia, Balears and Valencia. By 1500, several Languedoc families using the name Faucon came from a Falconi family from Florence, Italy. Among the oldest of Valencia's historical Falcons is Micer Rodrigo Falcon recorded in 1441 as the Chancellery of Aragon. He obtained ownership of the plaza of vice-chancellor in 1460. His nephew was the famous doctor of law, Micer Damian Andres Falcon, noted to be "of much eloquent in speech".[1]

In British records, the name was brought into England during the Norman Invasion of 1066. The name Faukonarii is mentioned who worked at Carnarvon Castle in 1282, earning 6d per day in the summer, and 5d in the winter. In 1273, Richard le Faulconer was recorded in Huntingdonshire and William Falconer was documented during the reign of Edward III. In the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379, a Geoffrey Faulconer was listed. In some cases this name may have also been an occupational name for a man who worked the 16th-century piece of artillery named after the bird of prey.[2]

Historical migrations

The Falcon surname from which most of the bearers in the southern US and the Caribbean descend comes from cities in the regions of Extremadura and Andalusia, in Spain.

In 1508, Diego Falcon, originally from Montehermoso, Extremadura, Spain, left for Gran Canaria shortly after it was conquered by the Spanish. He lived on the island with his wife Maria Dominquez and his daughter Leonor. He was captain of the Spanish military infantry there and royal mayor of Teror, Gran Canaria. Almost all Falcon families which trace back to the Gran Canaria, including Cuba, Florida, Louisiana and Venezuela are descendant from Diego.

Marcos Alonzo Garza Y del Arcon Falcon was born around 1560 in Lepe, Andalusia, Spain. serving the military and married in 1585 to Juana de Treviño from a prominent Mexico City military family. His assignments took the family to Durango and Zacatecas where his duties were supervising the mining of silver and gold. His whole family ended up in Nuevo León in the time period between 1596 and 1603, after completion of his military career. The family of Marcos Alonzo is included in the list of the 12 original founding families of Monterrey, which was founded in 1596[3] Almost all Falcon families around northern Mexico and Texas stem from this lineage, including Captain Blas María de la Garza Falcón, who was a Spanish Settler of Tamaulipas and South Texas.[4]

List of persons with the surname

References
  1. "Diccionario hispano" www.family-crests.org (Spanish)
  2. "Falcon Coat of Arms / Falcon Family Crest" www.4crests.com
  3. www.vsalgs.org "Sample Lineages: Marcos Alonzo de la Garza"
  4. en.wikipedia.org "Blas María de la Garza Falcón"
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