Origin of Aguilar

Recorded in the spelling forms of Aguilar, Aguilera, and Aguiar, this surname is usually Spanish, but may also be Portuguese and Ashkenasic. It is habitational, and describes a person who originally came from a place known as 'the eagles lair', being a developed spelling of the Roman (Latin) 'aquilaria'. From about the year 100 a.d. until the collapse of the Empire in the year 410 a.d., Spain was merely a province of Rome. The influence of the Romans was profound, and many present day Iberian surnames owe their roots to the Roman influence.

The surname itself is much later, few surnames except those where the holder was associated with specific estates, were hereditary, although this was one of them. Early surname recordings include such examples as Flores Aguilar of Santa Ana, Mexico, on July 21st 1778, and Jose Aguilar of the San Diego Mission, California, who married Maria Lopez on December 6th 1781. The coat of arms granted in Spain has the very distinctive blazon of a gold field, charged with a black eagle displayed. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Luis Aguilar, which was dated August 24th 1661, in the registers of the city of Asuncion, Mexico, during the reign of King Philip 1V of Spain and Emperor of Mexico, 1619 - 1665. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Hispanic surname that derives from the homonymous toponym Aguilar which derives from the Latin aquilare which means "place inhabited by eagles".

This surname has the same origin as that of Aguiar, since the Mozarabic knight of Toledo, Men Gómez Ibáñez, who lived in the reign of Alfonso VI, was the father of Count Don Beda Bello, the Elder, is the common trunk of both. from whom the Aguiars descend, and from Don Egas Gómez, from whom the Aguilars come. Don Egas went with his sister to Portugal, at the service of Count Don Enrique, who gave him, as a reward for his services, the Señorío de Obiñal, which from then on, Don Egas took as his last name; his grandson Juan Gómez de Obiñal, a rich man from Portugal, married Doña María Pérez de Aguilar, and the eldest son of this marriage, Gonzalo Yáñez, a rich man from Portugal, went to Spain in the reign of D. Fernando III, the Saint, also achieving the dignity of rich-man; Alfonso X, the Wise, donated to him the Señorío de Aguilar in Andalusia, the current town of Aguilar de la Frontera (Córdoba), changing his last name to that of the Señorío.

In the opinion of many authoritative writers, there is another Aguilar surname in Spain and America, completely different from the previous one (despite the identity of their names), and which constitutes a separate lineage, due to its origin and another as well. the primitive solar where it comes from.

According to these authors, this last name Aguilar, also offers a lot of antiquity, since its origin comes from the Romans, as some affirm, or since it comes from some Gothic knights who were Lords of the town of Aguilar de Campóo, whose name take it as a surname, as others affirm, the truth is that the noble manor of Aguilar appears in said town from very remote times. The Counts of Castañeda later held dominion there.

Branches emerged from this site that passed to Navarra, Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia, and which spread throughout La Rioja, Asturias and Galicia, creating new solar houses, which contributed to spreading the family name in the same regions.

In Aragon the lineage flourished greatly, and had houses of very high rank in Calaceite and Aguilar de Alfambra, in the province of Teruel; in Borja and Tarazona, in the province of Zaragoza, and in Robres, in the province of Huesca. Already in the times of King Jaime I the Conqueror there were several knights of this lineage in Aragon who were rich men.

Juan de Aguilar served the Monarch in the capture of Valencia.

Beltrán de Aguilar also helped in his conquest of King Jaime.

Álvaro de Aguilar distinguished himself greatly in the assault on Xátiva.

Francisco de Aguilar was Chambermaid of King Pedro III in 1383.

Pedro Jordán de Aguilar served with his horse to the Infante Alonso in the war in Sardinia.

Pedro Garcés de Aguilar was Lord of Alcañiz, and Garci Pérez de Aguilar, Lord of Roda de Isábena, of the province of Huesca.

In 1583 Pedro Jerónimo de Aguilar, a resident of Zaragoza, was deputy infanzón.

In 1602, Francisco de Aguilar, a neighbor of Borja and son of Jaime de Aguilar, born in the same town, was also deputy infanzón.

Jerónimo de Aguilar was also from that house of Borja, who had married María Brunel, and they were the parents of José de Aguilar, born in Longorez, in the province of Zaragoza, who married María de Medina, a native of Madrid, from which Gabriel and Juan Aguilar de Medina had, who entered the Order of Santiago: the first in 1695, and the second in 1700.

The branch of Catalonia also produced very noble knights. From her comes Fray Pedro de Aguilar, commander of Majorca in the Mercedarian Order in 1317.

The solar house of Seo de Urgel, in the province of Lérida, was very important.

The house of Navarre also had much splendor in the Middle Ages.

Fray Francisco de Lozano, in his "General Nobility of Spain", records his land in Navarre. Others settled in Vizcaya and Mixa (Baja Navarra).

Francisco de Orue y Aguilar, a resident of Ormáiztegui (Guipúzcoa) proved his nobility in 1705.

The branch of Valencia gave rise to very distinguished families.

Miguel Jerónimo Aguilar y Aymerich belonged to that branch, who married Jerónima de Vera, in whom he had Francisco de Aguilar y Vera, who married Rafaela Aymar, and they were the parents of Jerónimo de Aguilar Aymar, a native of the city ​​of Valencia, Governor and Captain of Sueca, who entered the Order of Montesa in 1572.

Don Juan Aguilar was also from the branch of Valencia, he married Doña Manciana Caplliure or Coloibri, from this union were born: (1), Doña Juana Aguilar Caplliure, who died without succession; (2), doña Ursula Aguilar Caplliure, I Lady of Alacuas, was her first spouse Jaime García, whose succession follows, her second spouse was Berenguer Martí Torres, citizen of Segorbe; (3), Mrs. Isabel Aguilar Caplliure, was his first spouseGalcerán Castellví y Mercader, IV Lord of Carlet, second spouse Pedro Ramón Moncada, Lord of Villamarchante.

Mosen Jaime García Aguilar, eldest son of Doña Ursula and Don Jaime García, II Lord of Alacuas, married Doña Violante Zahera Siscar, with whom he had Francisco García Aguilar Zahera, III Lord of Alacuas (he died in 1497 of injuries who suffered in the Conquest of Granada, and who he tried to cure in Córdoba at the home of the Aguilars of said city where he was received as a family), who married María Aymerich, and they had: (1), Jaime García Aguilar Aymerich, IV Lord from Alacuas, who follows the line; (2) Francisco Luís Aguilar Aymerich, his first spouse was Doña María Magdalena Cruielles Ferrando, who died in 1554, and with whom he had a son named Jacobo Aguilar Cruilles; his second spouse was Doña María Ángela Pertusa; (3), Dimas Aguilar Aymerich; (4) Miguel Jerónimo Aguilar Aymerich, married Doña Jerónima Vera, and they had Francisco Aguilar Vera, who married Doña Rafaela Aymar and they had Jerónimo Aguilar Aymar, a native of the city of Valencia, who entered the Order of Montesa in 1572 ; (5), Ángela Aguilar Aymerich, who married Miguel Ángel Bou Cruilles, IV Baron de Callosa; (6), Luisa Aguilar Aymerich, who married Luis Capero; and (7), Margarita Aguilar Aymerich, who married Luís Heredia Antolí.

Possibly V Lord of Alacuas and son of Jaime García Aguilar Aymerich, was don Melchor Aguilar, lived in 1555, married doña Jerónima Hijar Vera.

Jaime de Aguilar belonged to the same family, a native of Valencia, who made his marriage with Mrs. Jerónima García, of the same nature, from which he had Agustín Aguilar and García, who married Mrs. Francisca Villanova, and were the parents of Jaime Aguilar Vilanova, a native of the city of Valencia, who entered the Order of Montesa in 1587. He died in Flanders in 1609.

Don José Aguilar, who died shortly before 1663, married Doña Inés Oluja Oluja.

Mossén Jaime Febrer mentions in his Trovas: "A red eagle on a silver field were the weapons of Arnaldo de Aguilar, when he came (to Valencia), from Navarre to serve the King as an adventurous soldier. Forced by hunger (whose necessity lacks law) arrived at a country house, where he found not only his precise and necessary food, but also his fortune, because an old Moor crying told him, take a chest, that heaven had kept for him for his fortune and good luck: with what he was rich".

Febrer also cites: "Alfonso de Aguilar, whose ancestral home resided in Aguilar de Campos, had an imperial eagle on a field of gold as arms. He was marshal of the King of Castile, and served at his expense in the war of Orihuela and Murcia against the rebels, until they were punished. He acquired many goods in these wars, and bought lands of value and appreciation in Valencia, Liria and Segorbe. He was appointed mayor of Segorbe".

The house of Asturias produced knights of great luster. It had the castle of Aguilar, an ancient site of this Asturian family, which was located between the rivers of Navia and Pocina, and of whose owners there are repeated memories in old instruments of the Cathedral and the Convent of La Vega de Oviedo. Lord of that castle of Aguilar was Pedro Rodríguez de Aguilar, father of Urraca Pérez de Aguilar, who married Alvar Díaz de Asturias, rich man and Lord of the castle of Orbaneja, from whom I had the following children: (1) Rodrigo Álvarez de Aguilar, Lord of the castles of Aguilar and Orbaneja; (2) Sancha Álvarez de Aguilar, Abbess of the Monastery of La Vega, and, (3) Urraca Álvarez de Aguilar, wife of Melén Suárez de Valdés, a highly celebrated knight in his youth and tutorship of King Alfonso XI, and who had different castles and places in Encomienda for the holy church of Oviedo, which was a thing of great luster at that time.

The successors of this family later went to live in Villaviciosa and its region, where they owned the castle of San Jurde and another of the same name in Aguilar in Peñamellera, which today is enjoyed by the Count of Vega de Sella, as successor of the house.

Some authors say that another line of Aguilar settled in Pajares, a town belonging to the Brihuega City Council, in the province of Guadalajara.

From another line, who settled in Sigüenza, came Melchor de Aguilar, a native of said population, who married Catalina Flores de Valdés, a native of Madrid, and they were the parents of Juan de Aguilar, a native of Sigüenza, who made their marriage with Ana Muñoz, a native of Trijueque, from whose union Francisco Aguilar y Valdés, a native of Almazán, was born, Captain of Horses and Knight of Santiago in 1703.

In Santiago de Galicia, according to Juan Baños de Velasco, there was another family from Aguilar, wholast name Aguilar Spain.

The branch of La Rioja had very important houses in Aguilar de Río Alhama and in Soto de Cameros. The Aguilars of this last lot became connected with the Pérez family, forming a very extensive branch of Pérez de Aguilar.

José de Aguilar de Cassador and Oluja Olim de Dusay, a native, resident and Knight of Barcelona, ​​Lord of Enfesta and Colonel of the Royal Armies, was created Marquis of Aguilar de Vilahur in 1715 by the Pretender King Carlos III of Catalonia, and obtained the privilege of Noble of the Principality of Catalonia by Don Carlos II, in Madrid, on April 18, 1679.

Knights with the last name Aguilar proved their nobility to enter the various Military Orders of Santiago, Calatrava, Montesa, Alcántara, Carlos III and San Juan de Jerusalén, doing so in the Hijosdalgo Room of the Royal Chancery of Valladolid and in the Royal Audience of Oviedo, to exercise positions of the Holy Office of the Inquisition; hijosdalgo gentlemen received in the Noble State of Madrid, entered lots, holding positions in the City Council; other gentlemen entered the Royal Seminary of Nobles of Madrid, after justification of the nobility of their surnames, since its foundation by Don Felipe V in 1725.