The first written record of the surname being used is in the marriage of a Galician man named García Sánchez de Mejías to the daughter of Juan Sánchez de Mendoza, brother of Don Lope de Mendoza, Archbishop of Compostela. The surname may have originated as a toponym for the towns of either
Mesía or
Muxía in
Galicia. According to "El Blasonario de la Consanguinidad Ibérica" (The Armorial of the Iberian Consanguinity) by genealogists Ampelio Alonso de Cadenas and Don Vicente de Cadenas y Vicent,
Mejia is described as having been brought to Galicia and
León by
Sevillians who escaped to the mountainous northern provinces amidst the Moorish invasions of southern Spain. Prior to this, the bearers of the name had lived in Seville since Visigoth and Roman times. After the
Reconquista, some returned to Seville. Note that
Mexía is the older Spanish spelling of the name. In the modern orthography of Spain, the spelling is
Mejía, though in Mexico the older orthography is still considered correct. Similarly, until recently Spaniards rendered the country name
Méjico rather than
México, though this has reversed in recent decades out of deference to Mexico.
Sephardic origin theory Another common theory is that the name may have
Sephardic origins, from when the Spanish Kingdom forced Jewish settlers to change their surname to
Castillian. The basis for this theory is that the literal translation of the word for "Messiah" is "Mesía". However, others have argued that the name could have simply been assigned at baptism by a priest who chose to use a biblical word, rather than as a result of translation. In addition, Spaniards with any Jewish or Muslim ancestry
were not allowed to emigrate to the New World colonies, and so this theory might not account for the extensive popularity of the surname in Latin America today. ==Geographical distribution==