Trevino

Recorded in several forms including Trevna, Trevijano, Tresvina, de Trebino, de Trevenu, de Trevino, Trevino, and possibly others, this is a Spanish or later Mexican, locational surname. The name is also recorded in English as 'Trevena', and curiously all forms of the surname both from Spain and England have much the same meaning. The name describes somebody who lived at house on a boundary, or a place where boundaries met. These boundaries, which originally would have been walls, single marker stones or even a tree, would have designated either adjoining farms, or later in most cases, the civic boundaries between regions or towns and villages. In time these 'boundary markers' became places in their own right, from which people in turn migrated to other areas, taking the name of their original village as their surname. Sometimes these people owned the village, hence in this case the early forms of de Trebino or de Trevino. Spellings over the centuries being at best erratic and local dialects very strong, lead to the development of 'sounds like' spellings of the surname. Examples of the surname recording taken from authentic surviving Spanish registers from the end of the medieval period include: Antonio de Trebino of Toro, in the Zamora province, on June 24th 1665, Joseph de Trevina, of Galdames, Vizcaya, on June 19th 1774, and Estefana de Trevnu, of Ellorio, Vizcaya, on May 6th 1872.