Names ending in ‘-es’ and ‘-ez’

Introduction

Most Spanish surnames (or perhaps even all of them?) that end in “-ez”, like the Portuguese ones in “-es”, are paroxitones (which means that the stress falls on the penultimate syllable), and therefore require the acute accent (´). In Portuguese, this isn’t necessary, because the corresponding names end in “-es”, and according to the spelling rules they are automatically paroxitones without needing a written accent.

Compare Eça de Queiroz, a name which is sometimes also written Eça de Queirós, without any consequences for the pronunciation.

Table

Spanish surnamePortuguese surname
ÁlvarezÁlvares
ÁlvezAlves
AntúnezAntunes
Aranjuez (!) ??
ChávezChaves
El Cordobés (!)
Estébanez, Estévanez??
Estévez Esteves
FernándezFernandes
DomínguezDomingues
GálvezGalves ??
Giménez, Jiménez, XiménezXimenes
GómezGomes
GonzálezGonçales
GutiérrezGuterres
HerráezFerraz?, Ferras?, Ferrás?
HernándezHernandes
IbáñezIanhes?
Jerez (!)Xerez (!)
JuárezJoares
Laínez Laíns
LópezLopes
MartínezMartins
Márquez (Gabriel García) Marques
MéndezMendes (Sérgio, da Costa)
MóntezMontes
NúñezNunes
PérezPeres (Kenneth, Belle)
RamírezRamires
PírezPires
RodríguezRodrigues
Sáez??
SánchezSanches
SuárezSoares
Valdez, Valdés (!)
VázquezVasques
Velázquez, VelásquezVelasques
Peneda-Xurés (!) Peneda-Gerês (!)
YáñezEanes


Stress patterns

The word is if the stresses syllable is the Example
oxytonelastarroz
paroxytonepenultimate (last but one)palavra
proparoxytoneantepenultimate (last but two)última