Malaga has a history of many invasions—mostly peaceful—since the time of the Phoenicians, Muslims, Romans, and Byzantines. That is why it is unlikely that an autochthonous man from Malaga does not have one of foreign origin in his first or second surname, as they say in South Newspaper. Tourism is a large part—if not the most—of the province’s source of wealth. Thousands of foreigners arrive—and some stay—to enjoy the weather.
For the Andalusian milieu, the foreigners who visited Malaga the most were the English because it was a seaport and the sons of Great Britain dominated the seas for many centuries. In addition, they enjoyed a climate that they did not have and took advantage of it to market their products. Some English surnames that can be found in Málaga are Crooke, Power, Bryan or Livermore, illustrious figures who boosted Málaga’s trade by creating their own industries.
On the other hand, the Germans also left their mark on Malaga. The Grunds, Gross, Pries, Krauel, Nagel, and a long list of families that settled in Malaga to represent the prestigious commercial houses.
“A modern air”
The president of the Unicaja Foundation, Mariano Vergara, stated, reported by Diario Sur, that the origin of the majority of Malaga’s bourgeois surnames “gave our city a modern and cosmopolitan air, different from other Andalusian cities”. Some foreign surnames were linked to the tourist explosion that took place on the Costa del Sol, such as Alessandri, Langworthy or Hohenlohe. Changing from foreign country, some of the surnames in Malaga come from the south of France. The French arrived with the aim of dedicating themselves to the hardware store, and some acquired great fortunes, such as Taillefer, Rein or Disdier.
Following the line of the foreign ‘invasion’, the Italians who settled in the city came from Genoa, due to the fast and comfortable travel between cities in the 18th century, such as Chicano, Prolongo or Raggio.
All these surnames transformed Malaga. They turned it into a city with guarantees of being large and prosperous. However, surnames from other Spanish regions also had a great weight, such as Ruiz de la Herrán, Pérez del Pulgar, Uncibay, Arriola, Masó, Canivell, Mitjana, Such, Valls and a long list.
