That's right. During my research of documents of the beginning of the 
19th century I have seen individuals catalogued as "Indios" with no 
last names. Also, it is true what you say about taking the surname of 
a patron, but I have also seen individuals with surnames taken from 
towns in Jalisco, as well as occupations: San Juan, Sayula, Cocula, 
Albanil, etc.

--- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, "marge vallazza" <TeaCozyGran@k...> 
wrote:
> When surnames were finally given to the Indios, many of them 
received names such as Juan de Dios or Maria de los Angeles--saints 
names were used as surnames.  Sometimes they also took on the surname 
of the patron of the particular rancho, pueblito, hacienda, casa, 
etc., that they were living at.  Marge Vallazza:)
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: makas@n... 
>   To: LosRanchos ; Ciudad_Juarez@yahoogroups.com 
>   Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2004 2:19 PM
>   Subject: [ranchos] Indios: Surnames
> 
> 
> 
>   When the Spaniards made converts of the Indios of Mexico they 
gave them 
>   Spanish names. So am I correct that there are peoples of every 
Spanish 
>   surname out there that can eventually trace their genealogy back 
to 
>   where that name was "assigned" and then the trail would end 
because it 
>   would be extremely difficult or impossible to find a written 
record of 
>   the Indio names before conversion. . .OR. . .or do I have this 
all 
>   wrong? Was it only first names that were assigned to them and 
then as 
>   the Spaniards crossbred with the Indios those bi-racial children 
then 
>   had a ligitimate [traceable] name that could be traced back to 
Spain?
> 
>   How exactly did the names for the indios come about?
> 
>   joseph
> 
> 
> 
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