Murrieta
The YouTube channel thejohnsonfam states that the family live in Murrieta in California and I read on the site for the town that it was named after its founder Juan Murrieta. Is Murrieta a variant of Murray? Or what is its meaning? How is it pronounced?
vote up1vote down

Replies

Just to be clear, I have no knowledge of Basque names or language. Murrieta is a name from the Biscay part of Spain.
Basque "-eta" means "an abundance of."The name has a few variants Murieta / Murietta / Murieta, etc.
I cannot find a definitely meaning for the beginning of the name, but...
"Murri" means "to die" in Basque.
Furthermore, while Basque is older than Latin, Latin is the mother language of Spanish and Spanish influence did later slip into the Basque language. "Murus" means "wall" in Latin and is used in Spanish place names such as Mura in Barcelona. It was used to describe many places surrounded by or near to a wall. If the name derives from a mix of Spanish and Basque, it could be "beyond the wall" or "many walls."
If it's completely from Basque, all I can find is that it would mean "an abundance of death" or "many deaths."Those translations are all correct, but I cannot be sure there isn't other influence or other words the "murri" part could have derived from.
I only know I spent over an hour researching this name for you.
vote up2vote down