Mercado Family Crest, Coat of Arms and Name History

Surname Meaning, Origin, and Etymology
Mercado is a surname that comes from the ancient country, Spain. Its origin can be traced back to the provinces of Segovia and Valladolid and go further back in time it is possible that its origin could have been in Andalusia or Old Castile. Etymologically, it has a very simple and clear meaning. It comes from the Latin word “mercatus” that means market, which is the exact translation of Mercado into English. This last name can also be found in Portugal, where it was brought by Spanish many generations ago. Nevertheless, Spain and Portugal are not the only Europeans nations with pieces of the history of Mercado. Actually, the first record that shows a bearer of Mercado, or one of its spelling variations,  is Roger Mercand, who was recorded in County Berkshire, England during 1202.

Spelling Variations
Spelling variations were a typical thing during the Medieval Age. It is important to consider that unlike the present, not everyone knew how to write, nor there were many grammatical rules that dictated the right way of writing words. The process of writing was done by scribes and the only reference or guide they had to depict words on paper was how they sounded. The consequence was that each scribe could write the certain word in a different way, so at the moment of writing a surname, two of them could come up with two different ways of doing it.

To add more confusion, this wasn’t the only factor that caused spelling variations. Another element was the mix of cultures, which happened during wars. The Medieval Age, was a period with several armed conflicts, so several civilizations passed for the same territory. A perfect example of that is Spain, which was conquest by the Gauls, who came from Germany, then it was part of the Roman Empire, later was occupied by Muslims and then regained by Europeans. Thanks to this, the culture mix and each society leave their own tracks, like surnames.

Another factor that boosts the creation of spelling variations were the actions taken by some branches of the same family. Some groups of the same family used to add or remove some letters of the original family name with the idea of expressing their loyalty to a king or lord or that they followed a specific religion. Finally, there were also the translations of surname, that not always were done right, and sometimes they needed to be done, in a language that didn’t contemplate the surname. Thanks to all of these factors, Mercado count on some spelling variations such as Mercaddo, Meradoo, Mercados, Mercadors, Mercadons, de Mercado, deMercado, Demercado, DeMercado, Merkado and many more.

Popularity & Geographic Distribution
In the ranking of popularity of the surnames, Mercado holds the 888^th spot and count on approximately 592,006 bearers. The nation with the highest number of users of Mercado is the Philippines, followed by Mexico and the United States. Additionally, the country with the highest density of bearers of Mercado is Puerto Rico.

Early Bearers of the Surname
There are records that allow to know the names of some old bearers of the surname Mercado such as Gutierre De Mercado who landed in Spain main in 1534 and Gabriel de Mercado, who was a traveler who arrived in New Spain in 1578, Roger Mauchant who can be found in Yorkshire, England in 1219, Ranulph le Marchand who appears in Count Wessex, England in 1240.

History, Genealogy, and Ancestry
There are good records that show genealogical trees of bearers of the surname Mercado. One of them talks about the family of Iñigo del Mercado from San Tullan, Spain. Iñigo got married to María Santos de Villanueva and together they only had one child, Felipe del Mercado, who got married to a woman called María Santos del Barrio, daughter of Martín del Barrio and Josefa de la Llave.

Felipe del Mercado and María Santos del Barrio had three children. The first one was Gregorio del Mercado del Barrio, who also born in San Tullán, Spain and arrived in Perú during 1761. He played several political charges and got married to Micaela María de Lerma y Hermosilla but they didn´t have any children. The second child José el Mercado del Barrio, but he the records don’t show any marriage or offspring.

The third child of Felipe del Mercado and María Santos del Barrio was Martin Mercado del Barrio. He got married twice, the first one to Angela del Villar Otáñez and the second one to María de Sorriva. Martin only had children with his first wife Angela. The first of these children is Francisco de Mercado y Villar, who was born in San Tullán, Spain and got married to María de Sopeña, there is no record of their offspring. Then, there was Felipe del Mercado y Villar, who also was born in San Tullán, Spain but traveled to Chile, where he became a public server and got married to María Josefa Cisternas y Fuica, daughter of Francisco de Cisternas y de la Fuente Villalobos and María Fuica Pastene. After this marriage, Felipe got married again to Mariana Cisternas y Fuica, sister of his first wife and then he got married a third time to María Josefa Marín Cisternas, daughter of Clemente Marín de Riberos and Josefa Cisternas y Fuica.

The first child of Felipe de Mercado y Villar was Antonio Mercado y Cisternas, but he didn’t have any children. Then, there was Ventura Martín de Mercado y Cisternas who got married to Nicolasa Corbalán y Allende, daughter of Pablo Corbalán Castilla y Arias de Molina and María Josefa de Allende y Corbalán. Ventura and Nicolasa had nine children, María Mercedes Mercado Corbalán, who got married to Juan Ramón Rosales y Fuentes, Antonia Mercado Corbalán, who got married to Fernando Varas Marín and had two children Mercedes Varas Mercado and Jose Antonio Varas Mercado. The next child of Ventura Martín de Mercado y Cistenras was María Ignacia de Mercado y Corbalán Allende who got married to Francisco Javier de Ossa y Palacios and their children were María Ignacia Ossa Mercado, María Mercedes Ossa Mercado, Ignacio Ramón Ossa Mercado, Andrés Javier Ossa Mercado, Josefa Ossa Mercado and Baltasar Ossa Mercado.

The others children of Ventura Martín de Mercado y Cistenras and Nicolasa Corbalán y Allende were Felipe Mercado Corbalán, Felipa Mercado Corbalán, Antonio Mercado Corbalán, Nicolás Mercado Corbalán, Tránsito Mercado Corbalán and María Mercado Corbalán.

The third child of Felipe de Mercado y Villar was Juan de Mercado y Cisternas who got married to Rosa Corbalán y Castilla y Allende y Salazar and they had eight children. Miguel Mercado Corbalán, who got married to Rosario Mandiola Vargas and their daughter was Angela de Mercado y Mandiola, Tadeo Mercado Corbalán, Mariano Mercado Corbalán, Manuela Mercado Corbalán, Antonio Mercado Corbalán, José Silvestre Mercado Corbalán, Gregorio Mercado Corbalán, and Ambrosio Mercado Corbalán y Castilla who got married to María Antonia Aguirre Guerrero and their child was Mariana Mercado Aguirre.

The following child of Felipe de Mercado y Villar was Francisco Javier Mercado y Cisternas who got married to Juana Calleja y Aguirre and they had ten children. They were Vicente Mercado Callejas, José Mercado Callejas, Diego Mercado Callejas, Francisco Mercado Callejas, María Josefa Mercado Callejas, Ramón Mercado Callejas, Rosario Mercado Callejas, Antonia Mercado Callejas, María Mercedes Mercado Callejas and María Candelaria Mercado Callejas.

The last two children of Felipe de Mercado y Villar were Felica Mercado y Cisternas and Gregoria Mercado y Cisternas.

Another genealogical tree we can analyze is the one of Teresa de Mercado who got married to Francisco Olmedo and they only had one child, Francisco de Mercado. Francisco was the Mayor of Olmedo, Valladolid, Spain in 1553 and got married to Isabel de Alderete, daughter of Pedro de Alderete and Leonor de Riomayor. Francisco de Mercado and Isabel de Alderte had seven children, they were Francisco de Mercado, Gaspar de Alderte, who became a public server in Valladolid, Spain and got married to Isabel Tobar. The third child of Francisco de Mercado and Isabel de Alderete was the most famous, he was Jerónimo de Alderete y Mercado, an important figure in the history of Chile.

Jerónimo de Alderete y Mercado was born in Olmedo, Valladolid, Spain in 1516. He was an explorer who arrived in South America 1535 at Venezuela, from there he moved to Peru under the command of Diego Rojas in 1539. He then arrived in Chile with the expedition of Pedro de Valdivia in 1540. Jerónimo de Alderete y Mercado was an important name for the foundation of Santiago de Chile, the actual capital of the country and he even served as the Major of the city for several years. Later, he was part of an expedition to the Strait of Magallanes onboard of the ship San Pedro in 1544. After that Jerónimo returned to Spain to assist to the wedding of Prince Felipe and Queen María Tudor from England in 1544. There, he obtained the title of Major of Chile. During his stay in Spain, he got married to Esperanza de Rueda, who will travel with him and his return to Chile. Unfortunately, Jerónimo died in this trip in Panamá, thanks to yellow fever in 1556.

Before dying Jerónimo de Alderete y Mercado had one child with his wife Esperanza de Rueda. He was Diego de Alderete y Mercado, who was also a public server, but didn’t get married nor had children. The other children of Francisco de Mercado and Isabel de Alderete were Alonso de Mercado who got married to a woman which surname was Real, but there are no records of her name, and with her, he had one child, Beatriz de Mercado y Real, then there was Juan de Mercado and Beatriz de Mercado.

Early American and New World Settlers
After Europeans found out America, many of them decided to travel to the new continent to explore and start a new life, after all, America offered thousands of possibilities.  People from the old continent brought their costumes, cultures, and surnames, so they began to be used in America. It was like that, the surname Mercado was known in American lands and some of the first bearers in arriving during the 16^th century were Gutierre de Mercado, who did it in 1534 and Gabriel de Mercado, who arrived in New Spain in 1538.

In the 17^th century, Aaron and Issasck Mercado arrived in Barbados in 1679 and Moses Mercado landed in America in the same year. During the 19^th century Pedro Mercado landed in America in 1813, Francisco Mercado did the trip in 1827, at the next year Alonso de Mercado crossed the ocean, in 1834 was the turn of Cristobal de Mercado and Antonio de Mercado, who arrived in New Orleans in 1838.

Notables
The surname Mercado has been used by some remarkable people of different fields. Some of them are Tomás de Mercado (1525-1575) an important economist and theologian from Spain, René Zavaleta Mercado (1935-1984) a socialist, philosopher and politician from Bolivia, Alicia Margarita Kirchner de Mercado (b. 1946) an Argentinian politician, Arturo Mercado Chacón (b. 1940) a Mexican voice actor, Bernardo Mercado (b. 1952) a Colombian heavyweight boxer, Cesar Mercado (b. 1959) a Puerto Rican marathon runner, Orland Mercado (b. 1961) a baseball player from Puerto Rico, Sergio Ramírez Mercado (b. 1942) an intellectual and writer from Nicaragua, Orlando Sanchez Mercado (b. 1946) a politician from Philippines and Gabriel Mercado (b. 1987) a football player from Argentina.

Blazons & Genealogy Notes

1) Royaume de Grenade – D’or au lion de gueules couronné d’or cantonné de quatre fleurs-de-lis d’azur à la bordure de gueules ch de huit flanchis du champ
2) Andalousie – Écartelé aux 1 et 4 de gueules à l’aigle de sable aux 2 et 3 d’argent à une tour sommée de trois tourelles d’argent le tout enflammée de gueules. English: Quarterly 1st and 4th gules with an eagle sable 2nd and 3rd argent with a tower surmounted by three turrets argent all inflamed gules.
3) Andalousie – Écartelé au 1 de gueules à une faucon volant d’argent membré d’or portant au col un grelot du même au 2 d’argent à une tour sommée de trois tourelles d’argent le tout enflammé de gueules au 3 d’or à la croix florencée de gueules vidée du champ au 4 d’argent à deux boeufs de gueules l’un sur l’autre. English: Quarterly 1st gules with an falcon flying argent legged or carrying on its shoulder a hawk bell of the same 2nd argent with a tower surmounted by three turrets argent all inflamed gules 3rd or with the cross flory gules voided of the field 4th argent two oxen [with tails pendant] gules in pale.