Vidal: meaning and origin ?

[Maarten Vidal]

My family name, Vidal, isn't very common in Belgium nor in the region I
live in. Unfortunately, due to the large age difference between my
father and his father (who was born in 1898 while I was born only 80
years later), little is known about the origin of our family here in the
region of Leuven. However, the name Vidal seems to have its origins
somewhere in the catalan speaking part of Spain, where you see signs
bearing this name almost in every street. On the other hand, the name
isn't uncommom among Jews, probably due to the Sephardic heritage, which
I have experienced several times when I encountered jewish people.

Can somebody tell me more about the meaning and the origin of the name ?

Thank you very much,

Maarten Vidal
Maarte...@student.kuleuven.ac.be
http://www.student.kuleuven.ac.be/~m9506777/

[Marcel]

I found the following quotation in
Les noms de famille et leurs secrets
by Jean-Louis Beaucarnot
Robert Laffont éd. Paris 1988
p.65
"...Vitalis qui donne Vidal..."
in a series of baptism names. So this does not seem to be a Jewish name
but a typical Christian one.

Cheers

Marcel
--

Ad augusta per angusta

[Brian Wickham]

Maarten Vidal <Maarte...@student.kuleuven.ac.be> wrote:

Maarten,
In Gore Vidal's book "Palimpsest" he discusses his research
into the family name and comes to the conclusion that his family was
probably Jewish (I would look it up for you but it's not in the
book's index). The name was popular among Jews who adopted
Christianity in the Middle Ages. They had a penchant for adopting
names that were noncommital yet sounded positive to Europeans.
According to Gore, Vidal means 'life' and is probably the same as
Vitale in Italy, which was also commonly adopted.

Brian Wickham

[R]

Maarten Vidal wrote:
>
> My family name, Vidal, isn't very common in Belgium nor in the region I
> live in. Unfortunately, due to the large age difference between my
> father and his father (who was born in 1898 while I was born only 80
> years later), little is known about the origin of our family here in the
> region of Leuven. However, the name Vidal seems to have its origins
> somewhere in the catalan speaking part of Spain, where you see signs
> bearing this name almost in every street. On the other hand, the name
> isn't uncommom among Jews, probably due to the Sephardic heritage, which
> I have experienced several times when I encountered jewish people.
>
> Can somebody tell me more about the meaning and the origin of the name ?

Vidal as a Jewish family surname is very likely a derivation of "Vital,"
the Latin equivalent of the Hebrew name Chayim (= "Life"). At one time,
the combined name Chayim-Vital was rather common.