For hundreds of years until the 1960's the vast majority of the population of Ibiza shared around a dozen surnames (family names, or apellidos in Spanish) which were all of Catalan origin. Then came the tourist invasion which brought waves of immigrants from Castilian Spain who settled here working in construction, hotels, bars and restaurants and these days, as a result of this, Ibicencos are now outnumbered by immigrants and their descendants.
One sure sign of this is that the percentage of the population with the same Ibicenco surname is decreasing. Recent statistics show that four out of the five most numerous surnames are Catalan; Torres – 3,955 Mari – 3,225 Garcia – 2,466 Tur – 2,398 Ribas – 2,195 (with Garcia being the only Spanish name.)
However, these Catalan names now represent between only 2 and 4% of the population whereas 50 years ago this figure would have been as high as 15% (using an educated guess.)
After these names comes a whole list with around 1000 people in each category – Catalan names Costa, Ferrer, Cardona, Riera and Roig appearing with equal frequency to Martínez, Rodríguez, López, González and Pérez.
So, is your surname important in Ibiza? A quick flick through the lists of incumbents of well paid jobs in the local councils and Island Government of Ibiza suggests yes, as it reveals that around 70% of them are lucky possessors of Catalan family names!
Read more about Spanish names in our blog.