| Summary: | Studies of personal names are caught between two contradictory perspectives: explaining the considerable diversity of naming systems and name changes on the one hand and drawing clear rules from the sum of original cases on the other. It is of course necessary to define naming systems. In the case of early modern Spain, the issue is knowing how and to what extent the practice of giving children the name of the father or of the mother was applied. Rather than postulating a development towards a stable anthroponymic situation limited to several regional forms, it is more justifiable to propose a hypothesis of early modern anthroponymic instability, which was considerably intensified by large-scale migrations reaching unprecedented levels. A migrant’s name rarely carried onomastic baggage: it provided for a bet against the past and a strategy for the future. A name is a meagre asset for succeeding away from home: one wonders if it is excessive to say that there is no changing of place without a change of name. A name, whether it be authentic or claimed, is a key giving access to networks of power. A dynamic of alliance, quite different from the principles of bloodline lineage, functioned as a basic principle of naming. It is likely that the great wealth of documents in the early modern period will reveal many interesting examples and numerous regional variations in practice.
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