Cruz

For other uses, see Cruz (disambiguation).
Cruz
Family name

Pronunciation Spanish: IPA: [kruθ] or [krus]
Portuguese: IPA: [kruʃ]
Meaning Cross
Region of origin Spain, Portugal
Language(s) of origin Spanish, Portuguese.
Related names "Vera Cruz", "Santa Cruz", "De la Cruz"

Cruz is a surname of Iberian origin, first found in Castile, Spain, but later spread throughout the territories of the former Spanish and Portuguese Empires. In Spanish and Portuguese, the word means "cross", either the Christian cross or the figure of transecting lines or ways. For example, in the Philippines, the adopted Tagalog word is rendered to "krus" in plain usage, but the Spanish spelling survives as a surname.

The word "Cruz", as well as "Vera Cruz" ("True Cross") and "Santa Cruz" ("Holy Cross") are used as surnames and topological names. Its origin as a surname particularly flourished after the Alhambra Decree of 1492 and the increasing activities of the Spanish Inquisition, when New Christian families with Crypto-Jewish, Moorish, and/or mixed religious heritage converted to the state-enforced religion of Catholicism and subsequently fashioned and adopted surnames with unambiguous religious affiliation.

People with the surname

As a given name

Fictional characters

First name
Surname

See also

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