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[Surname] Re: Pacheco meaning?
in reply to a message by LaLa
This name came from Portugal originally, and was the surname of the Roman general Vivio Pacieco in 92 B.C. the name may have roots in the Latin word for "peace".
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This is interesting. I take Vivio Pacieco to be a modern Spanish or Portuguese version of Vibius Paciaecus. There is also a L. Junius Paciaecus on record. Both of these indivduals are associated with Iberia. I suggest that the Paciaecus was actually a given name, their own or that of a forebear, which became a cognomen when they or their forebear(s) became Roman citizens. This was the custom. e.g., Joseph son Matthias who became the historian Titus Flavius Josephus.
If this is so, then Paciaecus could be a latin version of an Iberian name, and the association with pax/peace would not be safe.
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