Jiménez is a
patronymic construction from the modern-styled
given nameJimeno, plus the
Spanishsuffix-ez, representing 'son of' Jimeno. The root appears to stem from Basque
semen ('son'), attested in
Aquitanian inscriptions as Sembeconnis and like forms. The patronymic appears in the 10th century Latin
Códice de Roda genealogies as Scemenonis.
Variants of the surname include Jimenes,
Ximénez/Ximenes,
Giménez/Gimenes, Chiménez, Chimenes, Seménez, Semenes, Ximenis or Eiximenis in Catalonia, in Sicilian Scimemi or Scimeni and the Neapolitan Chimenz or Chimenez. In
Spanish orthography, the variations of Jiménez that end with a z are written with an
acute accent on the second syllable. In English, all variations are commonly written without the diacritic. In
Portuguese orthography, there is no diacritic used for Ximenes.
Spelling
As the modern name Ximenes has an -es suffix, it is almost certainly of
Portuguese,
Galician or
Old Spanish origin, as the orthographic change to -ez (and the consonant shift from X to J) was revised in Spain only in the late 18th century. This was not the case in Portugal.
Other languages in
Castilian-dominated lands like
Aragon,
Asturias,
Galicia, often retained the -es ending, and their descendants bear witness to this historical anomaly. In Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearics, the ending -is is used instead of -es (or -ez), hence, the spelling Ximenis (or the variant with vowel epenthesis, Eiximinis or Eximenis).
Ximenes is found most commonly in Portugal, and in all of the ex-Portuguese Crown territories, especially in Brazil. Bishop
Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, Nobel Laureate from
East Timor in 1996, and Brazilian actress
Mariana Ximenes are prime examples of this historical difference.
The
Jiménez dynasty is a name sometimes given a dynasty that in 905 became kings of Pamplona, eventually expanding their control to most of Christian Iberia.
This page lists people with the
surnameJiménez. If an
internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that
link by adding the person's
given name(s) to the link.