I wanted to post today about the use of ‘malnoms’ in Mallorca and their benefits. Sometime last year, I posted about first learning of these names when I found an ancestor written as “als. burot”, which the archivist went on to say was not a nice nickname. He then introduced me to the practice of malnoms.
Now that I am revisiting some Mallorcan research, I want to dedicate a post to this practice and how it can be a helpful genealogical tool for finding your ancestors.
What is a 'malnom'?
A malnom’s direct translation from Catalan would be ‘mal’ = bad, ‘nom’ = name. However, a looser translation and the way it is more commonly used is like a “nickname”. The Catalan Wikipedia actually does have an entry for ‘malnom’, albeit it a short one.
Basically the entry tells us that these are unofficial names that can be applied to a single concrete person. An interesting line reads: “En general, són mal acceptats per l’interessat” (In general, they are not accepted by interested party) – this was due to their rudeness and sometimes insult to a person’s physical or personal characteristics. At the end it states that some are passed down amongst generations to the point that they have been become almost synonymous with that surname.
So let us look at some examples of malnoms in my family tree.
Solleric malnoms
BUROT – This malnom we have seen before for my ancestor Jaume Vallespir – my 11th great-grandfather. The nickname it seems can be applied three ways:
(1) a “defective/ridiculous” figure
(2) an “indiscreet” person, someone who talks too much or acts hastily
(3) A very handsome child
The last definition does not seem to be one that is verily commonly used given the visceral response from the archivist in Palma.
The above document is my ancestor’s last will and testament written in 1671. In it we can see that it names him, Jaume Vallespir, his ‘alias’, Burot, and his profession ‘perayre”. A “perayre” or “paraire” is someone who dedicates himself to preparing the wool to be woven by “combing it, carding it, and perching it”.
I imagine that my ancestor was very aware of this nickname since it appears in his own last will and testament so I do wonder how bad it could have been.
BOU – This is another interesting malnom/nickname used for my 10th great-grandfather, Pere Miró Colom. “Bou” in Catalan means “ox”, so this one is tied to an animal. Why? I am not sure!
Interestingly enough, this entry also comes from Jaume Vallespir’s testament in 1671. Jaume’s daughter Margalida (Margarita) Vallespir Marquès married Pere Miró Colom in 1665 in Sóller, Mallorca. So since Margalida was an heir to Jaume, she was mentioned in his will as “Margalida, muller de Pere Miró Bou…” (Margalida, wife of Pere Miró “Ox”).
Miró seems to be a fairly common surname in Sóller and can also be found around the island of Mallorca. The surname is sometimes connected to the xuetes/chuetas or Mallorcan Sephardic Jews; however, I have not been able to discover whether my branch is tied or connected to the xuetes.
A quick Google search for “Bou + malnom” does bring up a website that states that Bou was one of the “malnoms xuetes”, but I would need more conclusive evidence than it.
NEGOCI – For this last nickname I do not have a very clear photo; however it shows my 8th great-grandfather, Antoni Magraner Mayol, with the nickname “negoci”.
Antoni was baptized in 1660 in Sóller, Mallorca and married his wife Joana Estada Ribas in 1693 also in Sóller. I am not sure when exactly Antoni died but it seems to have been after 1700 since Joana died in March 1700 in Sóller, Mallorca and was listed as “muller (wife) of Antoni Magraner als. negoci”, which would mean that he was still alive when she died. Joana died likely very young – just seven years after her marriage to Antoni; before her death they had at least three boys: Antoni Llorens, Bartomeu, and Gabriel (this last son was my 7th great-grandfather).
Antoni went on to marry two more times – the second time shortly after in 1701 to Maria Alberti Vicens in Fornalutx, Mallorca. She would also pass away and Antoni Magraner married a third time in 1712 to Joana Maria Alcover Bauçà in Sóller, Mallorca.
Negoci, seems to have been used for a person related to “commercial or administrative matters”. It is possible that Antoni was in charge of family matters or simply he had a business-like personality that made him a go-getter.
Why are malnoms important?
Malnoms are important tools for genealogy because they are almost like bullseye targets to identifying your ancestor or at least a family line. So far in Sóller, I have seen that malnoms were almost individualized at least in the 17th century. However, some of these did get passed down and were brought into the 19th century. However, none of my ancestors’ offsprings took up the malnoms burot, bou, or negoci. Potentially there are other Miró alias Bou in Sóller related to my ancestor given the commonality of the surname at the time.
When I was able to identify Jaume Vallespir als. burot and Pere Miró als. bou, I was able to quickly identify them confirming them with when they were alive, their spouses, and places that they were in (basically Sóller) making them the right ancestors in question.
It definitely is an interesting practice and unfortunately not all of my ancestors have malnoms; however, I am grateful for the ones that do as it is easy to find them!