Cruz

also De la Cruz

Of the Cross, a surname taken in devotion.

Origin: Spanish
Register: Spanish family

The seat of Cruz

Seat vacant

Chief

No one leads the Cruz community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.

Current mission

No shared goal set yet. Once Cruz has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.

The Cruz clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.

Help rebuild the Cruz clan →

What does the Cruz name mean?

Religious and devotional, from cruz, the cross. Taken as a surname out of piety, on entering a religious order, or by converts, often in the fuller form De la Cruz, 'of the Cross'.

The history of Cruz

Unlike the patronymics, Cruz is a name of pure devotion, the cross, taken as a family name in an intensely Catholic Iberia, by religious houses, by the pious, and in the great conversions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Saint John of the Cross, the mystic poet San Juan de la Cruz, is its most luminous bearer. Devotional names travelled especially well into the deeply Catholic Spanish Americas, where Cruz is now one of the commonest surnames from the Philippines to the Caribbean, the cross carried, quite literally, in the name.

The castles of the homeland

The great strongholds of the homeland, look one up, see what it looked like in its prime, and recreate it to explore.

Reales AlcázaresRestored · prime 1366

Alcazaba of MálagaRestored · prime 1350

Montjuïc CastleRestored · prime 1799

All castles in Spain → · Strongest castles in Spain → · Castles of Europe

Play As Your Clan

Explore history as a CruzStart your story →

Hold a real castle against whatever you choose to send at it, take a ship out in her own service years, or stand at the shoulder of someone the record remembers. The chronicler sets the scene; the deeds are yours.

Frequently asked

What does the surname Cruz mean?

Religious and devotional, from cruz, the cross. Taken as a surname out of piety, on entering a religious order, or by converts, often in the fuller form De la Cruz, 'of the Cross'. Unlike the patronymics, Cruz is a name of pure devotion, the cross, taken as a family name in an intensely Catholic Iberia, by religious houses, by the pious, and in the great conversions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Is Cruz Spanish or Portuguese?

Cruz is a Spanish surname; its home on this atlas is Spanish, where the historical territory and family record of the name are concentrated. The same or similar spellings can surface in Portuguese records, but the lineage documented on this page is the Spanish one.

How old is the Cruz surname?

Unlike the patronymics, Cruz is a name of pure devotion, the cross, taken as a family name in an intensely Catholic Iberia, by religious houses, by the pious, and in the great conversions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. European hereditary surnames crystallised broadly between the 12th and 14th centuries, and the Cruz name took its modern form within that long settlement.

What is the Cruz family known for?

Of the Cross, a surname taken in devotion. Unlike the patronymics, Cruz is a name of pure devotion, the cross, taken as a family name in an intensely Catholic Iberia, by religious houses, by the pious, and in the great conversions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Is there a Cruz family crest or coat of arms?

There is no single coat of arms that belongs to everyone named Cruz. Heraldic arms were granted to individuals and descend through specific documented lines, so a "family crest" matched to a surname alone is decorative rather than genealogical.

Is De la Cruz the same family as Cruz?

Yes. De la Cruz is a historical spelling variant of the Cruz name. The two share the same lineage and family affiliation; different parishes, clerks and migration registrars recorded the same name in slightly different forms, and the variant spellings sit on the same family tree.

Where is the Cruz surname found today?

Spanish is the primary historical home of the Cruz surname. In the modern era, the name is also borne across the wider diaspora, particularly in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where families carry the line of descent from the same Spanish origin recorded on this page.

What does the Clan Rising page for the Cruz family cover?

The Clan Rising page for the Cruz family covers the meaning of the surname, the historical geography of the name and the seat of the head of the family. Each section is linked to the underlying atlas of Spanish so the name can be read in the geography that shaped it.

Who is the head of the Cruz family today?

The seat for the head of the Cruz family is currently vacant on this register. Clan Rising is rebuilding the chief and family structure for the modern era, and the family page allows readers to claim the seat or pledge to the name.