[keithtoo]

Carvajal (Kingdom of McWallace)

That's interesting. I had a friend with the surname Carvajal. His name was always a mystery to me. I assumed it was Hispanic (I live in Texas), and he did have dark hair and eyes, but he really had no other Hispanic features. I never did ask him about his ethnicity, but it always occured to me that he was a white guy, and not a Spanish white guy either, but more of a northern European.

This answers some questions I had in my mind.

[muawiyah]

There are two large groups of folks named Carvajal. One group is in Eastern France near Switzerland. They apparantly have been there since the 7th and 8th centuries when the Britons fled to Brezh. Vast parts of Northern France were devoid of people due to plague and other unknown causes - maybe the same reasons the Angles and Saxons were driven to invading the British Isles.

Some of the early families just kept on going East. They even have the King Arthur stories and everything!

The other Carvajals are from NW Spain. There are other names meaning the same thing, e.g. Gallegos, Galicos, Gallagos, Magelheis (Magellan, or McWallace).

They look just like Western Europeans although many do tend to tan deeper (messing around with the servants I'd guess).

Famous Gallegos, or Galicians, are:

Generalissimo Francisco Franco

Fidel Castro.