Valdés (surname)

Valdés is a Spanish toponymic surname of Asturian origin. Its appearance has been dated back to the times of the Reconquista in the municipality of Valdés, Asturias, where the eponymous lineage began. The area around the current town of Luarca was known as Val de Ese, "valley of the river Ese", as attested in medieval documents.[1] This river would later be known as the Esva River. According to Luis de Valdés' Memorias (1622), the river itself took its name from the letter s (ese in Spanish) due to its similar shape, although this is considered unlikely.[1]

During medieval times the surname was taken by many families living in the area around Luarca, which make is difficult to establish demarcations between families of the time.[1] By the 14th century, the surname had spread throughout the Kingdom of Castile, and later all of the Iberian peninsula. During the colonization of the Americas, the surname became established there, where many variations appeared, such as Valdez (by analogy with the Spanish patronymic -ez).

The French surname Valdès or Vaudès, from Peter Valdes, founder of the Waldensian religious movement, is unrelated to the Spanish surname. Instead, it derived from the Latin Valdesius, which referred to Vaulx-en-Velin, Lyon, his place of origin.[2]