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.

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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.

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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 a Spanish surname?

Yes, Cruz is a Spanish surname. Its editorial home in this atlas is Spanish, where the historical territory and family record of the name are concentrated.

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 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.