Spanish court: a ‘Sephardic surname’ is not a pedigree

Eleven years after first passing a (now repealed) law offering citizenship to people of Sephardic ancestry, a Spanish court has finally ruled that a surname once borne by Sephardic Jews and New Christians is not, of itself, evidence of Sephardic ancestry. Perhaps a little late to become compliant with genealogical standards.

A ruling reported this week by Infobae is a useful reminder of where the evidential bar now sits for Spain’s Sephardic nationality law (Law 12/2015). The court refused an application from El Salvador — overturning a lower court that had granted it — holding that certificates from Jewish communities in the United States and El Salvador did not meet the law’s territorial requirement, and that a genealogical report showing the family’s surnames were historically borne by Sephardim was not, by itself, proof of descent. The court applied doctrine fixed by the Supreme Court in January 2025: what the law requires is a documented family line connecting the applicant to the Jews expelled in 1492, not the surname’s history in general. For readers with applications still in the system, the practical lesson is the one genealogists already know — build the chain generation by generation, with records.