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Compostela Error

M

McSherry

Member
Time of past OR future Camino
Camino Frances (Part) - 2019
Is there a procedure to get a corrected Compostela? My wife got her Compostela and only later looked at it and found they had put the wrong first name on it (Maria rather than Dianna) and misspelled the last name. There was no chance to get it corrected as we were on our way out of SdC. Given that she was faced with some very challenging health issues and still made it I would like to surprise her with a corrected Compostela.

We were there in June.
 
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McSherry said:
Is there a procedure to get a corrected Compostela? My wife got her Compostela and only later looked at it and found they had put the wrong first name on it (Maria rather than Dianna) and misspelled the last name. There was no chance to get it corrected as we were on our way out of SdC. Given that she was faced with some very challenging health issues and still made it I would like to surprise her with a corrected Compostela.

We were there in June.
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The Office has all the arrival records. Contact them with the date, and they can issue a new compostela, free at the last asking.

Remember, they latinize the last name, so don't expect your version of the name. I have a friend whose last name is Kay, and they translated it as Catharine. He had them redo the certificate with literal Kay (Scottish in the Kay, McKay lineage).
 
Thanks for the info! I will be following up with them. Yes...I realize that they Latinize. This was more than that. They must have glanced at some other paperwork and got the wrong name in this case. Mistakes happen, and I am glad I can get this one corrected.
 
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falcon269 said:
The Office has all the arrival records. Contact them with the date, and they can issue a new compostela, free at the last asking.

Remember, they latinize the last name, so don't expect your version of the name. I have a friend whose last name is Kay, and they translated it as Catharine. He had them redo the certificate with literal Kay (Scottish in the Kay, McKay lineage).
Click to expand...
It is the GIVEN NAMES, not the family names, that are latinized. If someone fiddled with your last name, it was probably an overzealous volunteer who got carried away. Most, but not all, of the latinized versions are easily recognizable. Some, however, because of their hidden derivation, can be puzzling.

Jerome > Hieronymus > um

Joyce > Gaudentia > am

If a given name does not appear on the list of Latin equivalents, then you get to keep your own name. Most Asian names fall into this category.
 
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When a name is latinized it can be some what complicated. My given name - Vivian - derives from the Latin word for life. It also can be both a male and a female name in some cultures. In my case the Latin form should be Viviana as I identify as female. My Compostela actually has Vivianus written on it which is the male form. I noticed it when the document was handed to me but I think I was too tired and happy at the time to care. I am probably just being picky because I studied Latin for 3 years while in secondary school.
All that being said - if the name is actually wrong it is probably worth it to try and get it corrected.
 
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If the name can be latinised, it should be. There is a computer programme volunteers use to look up the Latin name: you have the latin version of Ann, and maybe with the flowery script that the office uses it might be easy to misinterpret the letters. It's not necessarily an error.
There should be either Dmun or Dman before the name: meaning you are either a man (dmun) or woman (dman). This doesn't sound necessarily like an error to me.
 
falcon269 said:
I have a few, and my last name of German origin is latinized and my first, too, is Latin.:)
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That’s weird because the computerized lists refer to given names (nombres) and not family names (apellidos). It would be a hoot to work on all the Irish surnames that translate to “son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter (Mc, Ó, Ní, Nic)” of someone. Not to mention our own such names (Johnson, Thompson, etc.). Yikes! Ugh! Oh, and they are put in the accusative case too, which is why they end in -m.
 
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ELHS220 said:
That’s weird because the computerized lists refer to given names (nombres) and not family names (apellidos). It would be a hoot to work on all the Irish surnames that translate to “son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter (Mc, Ó, Ní, Nic)” of someone. Not to mention our own such names (Johnson, Thompson, etc.). Yikes! Ugh! Oh, and they are put in the accusative case too, which is why they end in -m.
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Thompson is apparently Filius Thomae and Johnson is Filius Johannis or just Joannis, so those are easy. There's a list on Wikipedia of latinised surnames coined by Anglo-Saxon scribes, as well as later, and you can find similar for other European languages. Then there are names like Baker, Fisher, Miller, Smith that are easy to latinize / long established. We have several centuries worth of latinised surnames.

I often wonder how people feel in general about this. When I first learnt about it, I thought hm, cute. Now I'm of the opposite opinion. If you don't know Latin and your name - say Barbara Somename -appears as Barbaram Somename, is that not just plain odd? And in the past, I had to fight against the urge to tell someone that Dominum Martinum is not really his name in Latin. 🤫

PS: All names are fictional and don't refer to a real person. ☺
 
I was surprised, on this, our third Camino, that our names were written with the actual spelling as on our passports. Not Latinized in the least.
 
A) You could have asked for it to be changed, the office staff regularly rip up compostelas.
B) It's possible there's no Latinised version of your names in the system, although you might have had Latinised names in your previous compostelas.
( C) Names are not Latinised on the certificates of distance.)
 
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