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Hi everyone.

I´m going to introduced my family names. My father´s last name is Juri and my mother´s is Martínez.
Juri comes from Lebanon so lot of people think about Muslims or Jews when I say it. Anyway my family doesn´t practice any religion. So, Juri is not a common family name in Uruguay because most of the people witch have this last name is part of my family.
On the other hand, Martínez, witch is a Spanish last name. In America and Spain is a really common one. In fact, my mother said that the "z" means "son of" but I´m not sure about her theory. She said that Martínez means the son of Martin. Maybe it could be.

I think your mother is right Tatuana! :)
Thanks for writing,
Pieter

I also think your mother is right, Tatiana. In Spain there are lots of surnames ending by "ez", The most common are Hernández, Pérez, Rodríguez, Martínez or González.
This suffix was used in the Middle Age with the meaning of "son of". Some experts say that the origin was before, in the Visigoths' Age (between the Romans and the Arabs). Even there is a theory about the origin of this kind of family names related with the Basque language.
My surname Herranz is not a common one in Spain, despite of the z. But perhaps there is a similar reason about its meaning. I have found that there are over 14.000 people in Spain with my first surname.