The etymology of the toponym Rioja, which is named after the autonomous community of La Rioja (Spain) and which inherited lands populated by people from La Rioja in the past, such as the province of La Rioja and its capital in Argentina, a town in Chile, another in the province of Almería (Spain), and the province of Rioja and its capital in Peru, is complex and has been much discussed. The main theories point to different origins: the traditional popular one that makes it correspond to the river Oja, the one that points to the term Rivalia that would be translated as "land of streams", the one that points as germ a nominal tautology in the term rivo Ohia that would mean "river of fluvial bed"; and the very diverse ones that indicate that it would have its origins in the Basque language, for example as union of the words herria and ogia being translated as "land of bread".
Numerous authors from different periods have proposed different theories about it, such as the friar Mateo Anguiano in the 18th century, Ángel Casimiro de Govantes in the 19th century, Menéndez Pidal or Merino Urrutia in the 20th century, or in the 21st century, the researcher Eduardo Aznar Martínez. In addition, there are texts by older authors such as Florián de Ocampo in the 16th century or Rodrigo Méndez Silva in the 17th century, which give an account of the popular etymology of the toponym.
The first written appearances of this toponym as Rioga or Riogam date back to the 11th century, and it can also be found with different spellings such as Rioxa, Riogia, Rivo de Oia, Rivogio or in its definitive form Rioja in texts of later centuries. On the other hand, the oldest document found in which its demonym appears dates from the 13th century, with the spellings riogeñ and riogensi, that is, Riojan (Spanish: riojano).
In the first written appearances of this toponym in the 11th century, the westernmost area of the present-day Spanish region is designated under the same name; therefore, the primitive Rioja was the territory around the basins of the rivers Tirón and Oja, with some divergences in its exact location by different authors. Gradually and as a result of various historical events, the toponym was extended from the Middle Ages, to name a larger region, consisting of seven river valleys, located between the Tirón in the west and the Alhama in the east, which flow into the Ebro, namely La Rioja today.
Geographical location of its origins and process of expansion of the name
The first written references to the original terms —different variants documented in the Middle Ages— of the name of La Rioja, referred in the 11th century to a civil or ecclesiastical demarcation bordering the Montes de Oca, with a boundary to the west in the town of Belorado and Briones to the east, corresponding to the basins of the rivers Tirón and Oja. As time went by, the name would expand during the Middle Ages, naming an increasingly larger territory, as a consequence of political, social and territorial events that took place during that time. In medieval times, the name would spread eastward through the diocese of Calahorra, successively taking over the basins of the tributary rivers of the Ebro, Najerilla, Iregua, Leza, Cidacos, and so on, until it reached the Alhama in the east. In this way, the rest of the Rioja regions were named and the toponym Rioja was extended to cover the current boundaries. Its inhabitants were called riojanos —"riogensi" in the first written reference to the demonym— and this is how they were known. The expansion of La Rioja became such that even in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries a region somewhat larger than the current Autonomous Community was identified by this name. No studies have yet been carried out on how and why this territorial expansion took place, but everything seems to suggest that two of the events that made it possible were the foundation of the village of Santo Domingo de la Calzada in the 11th century, as well as the existence throughout history of different civil and ecclesiastical institutions that were distinctly Riojans, such as the merindad of Rioja, the archpriesthood of Rioja or the medieval corregimiento of Rioja.
Subsequently, following the conquest of America by the Spanish empire, the toponym Rioja would be applied to various territories populated by Riojans of European origin on this continent. The same would happen in the current province of Almería, as a consequence of the conquest of the Emirate of Granada.
Historical mentions The first documented mention is usually considered to be the one that appears in the Fuero de Miranda de Ebro, granted by the monarch Alfonso VI in 1099, where it appears as Rioga and Riogam, or written as Rioxa and Rioxam, pronounced as Rioja and Riojam. For Tomás Ramírez, the importance of the text lies in the fact that it is a transcription of the toponym that can be considered Romance, something that does not happen in other documents in which the term is translated into Latin, so it appears with different spellings (rivo de ogia, rivo de Oia....).
In the same Fuero de Miranda de Ebro it is also stated:
According to this, in the 11th century Rioja would be understood as the lands between Belorado to the west and Briones to the east, which are the basins of the rivers Oja and Tirón. Subsequently, the name would gradually expand as it was used to refer to an increasingly larger territory, until it reached the east to the river Alhama, covering the current boundaries, as can be deduced from other references to La Rioja written in successive centuries.
However, although the aforementioned charter of Miranda de Ebro in 1099 is traditionally considered to be the oldest document in which the toponym Rioja appears as Rioga, there is an earlier text related to this subject in folio 63 of the Becerro Galicano de San Millán de la Cogolla, dated 1082. It is also written in Latin and it mentions a disappeared town called Irahuri located in rivo de ogga, which Bermudo Gutierrez and his wife Godina donated to the monastery of San Millán. It reads as follows:
According to Eduardo Aznar Martínez,Eduardo Aznar Martínez is an anthropologist and historian. He has researched the traces of the Basque language in some areas such as La Rioja. He has written books on this subject such as El Euskera en La Rioja. Primeros testimonios and Tierras, gentes y voces. El legado del euskera riojano. In the latter he analyzes the toponymy, lexicon and ancient Riojan anthroponymy of Basque etymological origin. He also develops a theory on the origin of the toponym Rioja. Irahuri is a village that has disappeared and is difficult to locate, probably near the Oja River, whose name comes from the Basque language. The term consists of two components: huri, which means 'village or populated place', and ira, which is more dubious and can mean 'fern, fernland'. According to the experts who made the transcription and digital edition of the Becerro Galicano, this locality was close to the municipality of Casalarreina.
There is also a reference prior to the fuero written in the year 1084 for some and in 1087 for others, in which there is evidence of a donation to the abbot of San Millán Don Blas of the monastery of San Sebastián, which is in the valley of Ojacastro, and then adds:
The interpretation of this text is doubtful, since for Felipe Abad León and Eduardo Aznar Martínez it is clear that fluminis oggensis refers to a river and not to La Rioja. However, Tomás Ramírez considers that it is better to understand it from its context as a reference to a territory and therefore as the first translation of the Romance and ever older word Rioja into Latin.
Another deed prior to the aforementioned charter is clearer, appearing on folio 53 of the Becerro Galicano de San Millán, dating from the year 1095. It explains how the Infante de Pauleja gave himself to San Millán and donated his properties in La Rioja: "De Infante de Padulega carta in Rivo de Oia".
Joaquín PeñaMonk of San Millán de la Cogolla and academic of history. In 1973 he published a selection of convent archives from the 11th to 14th centuries in which the word Rioja appears. collected in documents of San Millán de la Cogolla from between the 11th and 14th centuries the different occurrences of the word Rioja, its spellings being: Rivvo de ogga (repeated and copied by other writers); in rivo de Oia (badly copied by Father Serrano and others following him); fluminis oggensis; et toti rivogio; in rivo de ogia; et rivo ogie; et rivo de oga; in tota rivogia (in 1191 rivo de ogga is repeated); rivogio; riogia (in a deed of 1214); rioga; riogensi (riojano or from La Rioja). According to Ramírez Pascual,Tomás Ramírez Pascual. Parish priest of Santo Domingo de la Calzada between 1981 and 1999. Writer of «La Rioja. Origen y etimología. De cómo Santo Domingo de la Calzada trajo "rioja" a La Rioja». the name Rioja would have arisen orally at a time prior to these documentary mentions, in which it was transcribed in different ways (rivo de ogia, rivo de Oia....) because medieval scribes were trying to translate into Latin a name that was already in what can be considered Romance in order to capture it in cultured texts, which forced them to break down the toponym into several words or modify it in search of the archaic origin of the term, as is done today.
If the work of the aforementioned Joaquín Peña is used, eight deeds belonging to the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla in which La Rioja is mentioned have come down from the 12th century to the present day. These appear with different spellings, such as rivo de oia, rivo de oga, rivo de ogia, rivo ogie, rivo de ogga, rivogio or rivogia. All of them correspond to texts written in Latin.
From the 13th century, this author found three deeds in which La Rioja is mentioned. Two of them are written in Latin appearing as rivogio and riogia and one in Castilian. The latter is presented with its current spelling "Burueba et en Rioja". There is also another text in Latin from the year 1228, where the demonym riojano appears for the first time, written as riogeñ and riogensi, referring to an archpriest of the diocese of Calahorra called Martino Pascasii. There is also a document from the same century in which this demonym appears in Castilian and not in Latin, written with the spelling riojano. This is stanza 41 of the work entitled Vida de San Millán, by the poet Gonzalo de Berceo, where it indicates that the people of La Rioja come to honor the saint Millán.
From the 14th century a large number of documents have been found where the toponym La Rioja appears in writing. Most of them are written with the current spelling Rioja or Rioxa and in texts in Spanish. Likewise, the word "la" preceding the name can also be found in some of them.
In later centuries there are many texts written in Spanish and not in Latin, and the spelling with the written toponym is Rioja with almost no variations. In the 16th century, for example, this can be seen in a brief description of this land by the chronicler Florián de Ocampo in his book entitled Crónica general de España (General Chronicle of Spain) of 1544:
Other examples from the same century can also be mentioned, such as the book entitled Compendio Historial of 1571, by the historian Esteban de Garibay, which contains the word Rioja on many occasions. This is shown in a fragment of the book which indicates the presence of Martín Fernández Puerto Carrero in Alfaro, Calahorra, Logroño and other parts of La Rioja: