About the concept of onomastic identity: the Privileges' parchments of the city of Balaguer

Abstract

This paper is an analysis of the name that appears in the Pergamins de Privilegis of the city of Balaguer. The historical period that we take for this study includes the years 1211-1352. The structural study of the systems of designation allows us to say that these spread and claim an identity to a concrete geographical space, the city of Balaguer of the 13th and 14th centuries; that the first name of the inhabitants of Balaguer in the Late Middle Ages are faithful to the trends set by the fashion onomastic predominantly in the Catalonia at that time and that the anthroponomy of Balaguer of the historic time covered offers as majority the surnames that come from place names. All these features allow us to talk of onomastic trends that confer identity to a population in constant geographical movement.