Family name origins & meanings
- Spanish (Menéndez) : patronymic from the medieval personal name Mendendo, a hypercorrected form of the Visigothic personal name Hermenegild, composed of the elements ermen, irmen ‘whole’, ‘entire’ + gild ‘tribute’. This personal name was borne by a 6th-century member of the Visigothic royal house, who was converted from Arianism to the Catholic faith and became an enormously popular saint, as a result of which the personal name was very common in Spain in the Middle Ages.