Mena (surname)
Appearance
Mena (also: Spanish: de Mena, Basque: Menaca) is a Spanish surname that originates as both a Basque[1][2][3][4] and Spanish Sephardic[5][6] surname.
It is also a given name, Mena. The Meena tribe of India is also spelled as Mena.
Basque meaning
[edit]Found in the valley of Mena (Alava, which today is Burgos), with branches in Bilbao and in Dima (Biscay) and it appears to have also moved from there into Navarre; regions now part of Spain. It appears to mean mineral or a vein of mineral deposits, however at least one author, Lopez Mendizabal, holds that its meaning is pastoral. A variant of the surname is Menaca, with the '-ka' suffix representing "place of", as in "place of Mena", equivalent to the Spanish "de Mena".[2]
Notable people with the name
[edit]- Carlos Mena, Spanish countertenor
- Cristian Mena, Dominican baseball player
- Eugenio Mena, Chilean footballer
- Gabriel Mena, Spanish poet, composer, musician and singer
- Gilberto García Mena, Mexican drug lord
- Javiera Mena, Chilean pop singer
- Juan de Mena, Spanish Renaissance poet
- Juanjo Mena, Spanish conductor
- Luis Mena (disambiguation), multiple people
- Luis Mena, former President of Nicaragua
- Luis Mena Irarrázabal, Chilean footballer
- Maria Mena, Norwegian pop singer
- Odlanier Mena, Chilean general
- Omar Mena, Cuban sprinter
- Pedro de Mena, Spanish sculptor in the 17th century
- Sharlett Mena, American politician; member of the Washington House of Representatives since 2023
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Alvarez, Grace de Jesus C. (1 December 2014). Topónimos en apellidos hispanos. Garden City, N.Y., Adelphi University. ISBN 9788470392115.
- ^ a b Xabier Ormaetxea; Susan Ybarra. "MENACA (also MENA)". Buber's Basque Page. Blas Pedro Uberuaga.
- ^ Auñamendi Eusko Entziklopedia. Fundacion Bernardo Estornés Lasa Funtsa https://archive.today/20141202024322/http://www.euskomedia.org/aunamendi/94202. Archived from the original on 2014-12-02. Retrieved 2014-12-02.
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(help) - ^ "MENA". Auñamendi Eusko Entziklopedia (in Basque). Fundacion Bernardo Estornés Lasa Funtsa.
- ^ Rabbi Monique Susskind Goldberg (November 2004). "GENEALOGY - MEXICAN/JEWISH. THE ANSWER". Schechter on Judaism: Ask the Rabbi. The Schechter Institutes. Archived from the original on 2010-12-18. Retrieved 2013-06-28.
- ^ G.Serrano Fenn (5 February 2009). "Issues affecting the lives of the hidden Sephardic Jews known as "B'nai Anusim"*". The Repercussions of Losing The Sephardic Identity. Sephardim Hope International. Archived from the original on 27 October 2010.