Juan Monroy

While I have searched for my full name many times to see whether this website still is at the top of the search results, I had not searched just for my last name to see what I can find. Today, I did, and I learned that my name is actually a town in Spain, not far from the Portuguese border. I can’t believe that our family name is an actual place, but I find it more incredible that no one ever told us.

Wikipedia tells me a couple of more things that I didn’t know:

• The name derives from France, which makes sense. Monroy sounds a lot like “mon roi” (my king).
• Hernando Cortes, the conquistador who wiped out the Aztecs, also has our name. His full name is apparently Hernando Cortes de Monroy y Pizarro.

I emailed my dad and my brother to see if they knew anything. Also, I sent them both a longer history of our name. Let’s see what he either tells me.