Origin of Lozano

Recorded in several spellings including Locarno, Losano, Losanna, Losanese, Lozano, and possibly others, this is a surname of Italian-Swiss origins. It is locational and originates from the city of Locarno, and like most such names was one that was given to a person who had left Locarno and travelled elsewhere to live. It was in medieval times, and it remains so today, that one of the easiest ways to identify a stranger was to call him or sometimes her, by the name of the place from whence they came.

Spelling over the centuries since the first creation of surnames in or about the 14th century, being at best indifferent, and local dialects to say nothing of different languages, being very thick, soon lead to the development of "sounds like" spellings. In addition we have a problem with Italian surnames that for fifteen hundred years after the fall of the Roman Empire in about the year 600 a.d, through to the year 1860, the country was simply a loose federation of states, and central records rarely existed. Such matters were left to the principalities who usually did not bother, meaning that recordings are often very poor. However in this case good examples of recordings do survive and they include: Pedro Lozano, the son of Juan Buatista Lozano, christened at Abenga, Genova, on January 1st 1748, and Joseph Antoine Losano, a witness at Scalenghe, Torino, on February 18th 1779.

Spanish, Peruvian, Filipino and Ecuadorian surname that derives from a nickname with the meaning of "energetic, cheerful, young".

Actually, this surname belongs to the noble lineage of the Espinosas, whose arms consist of four quarters that correspond to the four surnames: Espinosa, Cutillas, Quintana and Lozano. But since the latter is the lineage that interests us, we will dedicate our space to it, without prejudice to the fact that, in successive works, we deal with the other three constitutive surnames of the Barony of the Espinosa site.

Lozano is a very ancient lineage that dates back to the time of the Cid Campeador and its founder is recognized as Bugo Lozano, from whom Don Raimundo Lozano was a descendant, a native of Segovia, secretary to King Don Fernando "el Santo", a member of his Royal Council and his confessor, who ended up being Archbishop of Seville, when this city was taken from the Moors in the year 1248.

We have talked about Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, the famous "Cid Campeador", indicating that the surname Lozano was already known in his time. Certainly, since Count Lozano, lord of the Gormaz castle, was the father of Doña Ximena, the Campeador's wife. It should be noted that the real name of this character was that of Don Gómez de Gormaz, a great private who was King Fernando I and who continued to be the son of that monarch, Don Sancho II.

Now then: Count Don Gómez, even at a somewhat advanced age, continued to be as brave as he was in his youth, he showed such strength and vigor that no one knew him by any other name than "Lozano" and thus, what began as a nickname ended as a surname.

It is, therefore, a Castilian surname, specifically located in Burgos. But, starting from its Castilian homestead, this lineage spread to many parts of the peninsula, especially in Aragon, Murcia, Andalusia, La Mancha and Extremadura. Those of this lineage corresponding to the Vizcaya branch, very soon passed to Navarra and Asturias.

Always, the knights of this lineage accompanied their kings in all the warlike enterprises that were undertaken by them and likewise among the rich men who went with King Don Pedro, of Aragon, in the battle against Carlos, King of Sicily, there is evidence that a gentleman named Lozano distinguished himself remarkably in said fight, to the point that the king, grateful for his services, granted him numerous privileges.

Pedro Lozano was another wealthy man who accompanied the Infante of Aragon when, in the year 1265, he went to the border of the Marquesado de Villena. Martín Lozano attended the Courts of 1,414 and this is stated in the records and in the sentence issued by the Royal Court of the Kingdom of Aragon, dated May 28, 1,566 in favor of Don Miguel de Lozano, a resident of Luna.

Regarding the Lozano family from Aragon, they distinguished themselves in the conquest of Murcia and later in that of Jumilla. One of them, Don Gaspar Lozano, found a heroic death on the battlefield. Another, Mr. Pedro Lozano, settled in said region, founding a solar house from which he had numerous offspring. From this house came Don Esteban Lozano and Don Martín Lozano, who were captains of the Royal Armies, as well as Fray Juan Lozano who dedicated himself to an ecclesiastical career and became Bishop of Mazara and later Archbishop of Palermo. And due to the absence of the Viceroy of Sicily, who was the Marquis of Villafranca, he went to counteract the Duke of Vivona and he did it with such zeal and skill that a Royal Decree was sent to him for which the king thanked him, dated 20 July 1676.

For his part, a brother of the former, Mr. Martín Lozano, chose the arms race, distinguishing himself for his proven courage and courage in all the combats he took part in the campaigns in Portugal, Aragon, Catalonia and in the Italian Army, dying when he was governor of the castle of Catania.

In Sicily, another Lozano also carried out glorious feats of arms: it was Don Fernando Lozano y Avellán, who was captain of the Tercio de Infantería de Sevilla.

Fernando Lozano Gaytán was a Knight of the Order of Calatrava and Colonel of Dragons, Official of the War Office Secretariat, in the King's Council.

From the Castilian branch it is worth mentioning Cristóbal Lozano, who, unlike the previous ones, was not a man of arms, but of a pen. Born in the year 1609, he studied in Alcalá de Henares, where he was in love with a certain lady whose only name is known, Doña Serafina, and in memory of those loves he wrote his work "Las Serafinas". Later, he was ordained a priest and was parish priest of the Church of San Salvador de Lagartera, in Toledo, later holding various ecclesiastical positions. He traveled a lot and his friends included Calderón and Pérez de Montalbán. He left an estimable literary production,above all of the historical genre, among which we can mention "David persecuted" a very extensive novel divided into three parts: "The persecutions of Lucinda", "Soledades de la vida" and "Desengaños del Mundo", which were published up to fourteen times and they were the ones that gave great renown to this author. Suffice it to say that his character Lisandro de él, was the one who inspired the poet Espronceda to write his work "El estudiante de Salamanca", he also cultivated poetry. As his most accomplished work, "Los Reyes Nuevos de Toledo" is cited, a combination of descriptions of Toledo, biographies of the monarchs buried in the Chapel of the New Kings and various Toledo legends that powerfully influenced the romantic generation, especially in the poet Zorilla.

Of the branches of this last name that passed to America, mention should be made, among others, of Abigaiel Lozano, a great Venezuelan poet, Juan Lozano, a Colombian writer, and prominent American politicians, Jorge Tadeo Lozano, who was a patriot Julio Lozano Díaz, a Honduran politician who came to be the head of the State that governed dictatorially until the he was overthrown and finally, the surname has numerous American characters whose list would be too long to list here.

A Lozano branch, accredited his nobility in the Royal Court of Oviedo, in 1831.