Re: Villegas = Villa Egas
in reply to a message by Getb2
The Diccionario de apellidos españoles, which is the most up-to-date and reliable dictionary of Spanish surnames in my estimation, says that Venegas is an "apellido de origen dudoso". Two possibilities are given: (1) "un nombre arábigo formado de la partícula ben-, 'hijo de'" (note the variant Benegas); (2) "un nombre vascuense en relación con el vasco be(h)en, 'de abajo'". There's no indication that the -egas part has anything to do with Villegas.
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Well if "ben" is estimated to be "hijo de" which means "son of"... Would "Benegas" be "son of Egas"? SO that's another surname where "Egas" is a name... Like "Perez" is "son of Per" (Pedro=Piedra=Stone) and Villaper or Villapiedra would be "Stone Village" (Villa is "villa" or "village")